Measure of

The measure of intellect is judgment.

The measure of wisdom is silence.

The measure of ethics is transparency.

ZIP not genetic code

In today’s world your ZIP code, even more than your genetic code, determines whether you will lead a safe and healthy life. People’s income, family structure, housing, employment, and educational opportunities affect not only their risk of developing traumatic stress but also their access to effective help to address it. Poverty, unemployment, inferior schools, social isolation, widespread availability of guns, and substandard housing all are breeding grounds for trauma. Trauma breeds further trauma; hurt people hurt other people.

Bessel Van der Kolk

What Not How

In life the challenge is not so much to figure out how best to play the game; the challenge is to figure out what game you’re playing.

Money is like gasoline

while driving across country on a roadtrip. You never want to run out, but the point of life is not to go on a tour of gas stations.

Science is mostly right, Engineering mostly works

When you see anger, look for the fear

If you aren’t afraid of the truth, then you’re nowhere near it.

We cannot trust our brain whether what we perceive is real, nor on whether we know the real motives for our actions.

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar

Mark Twain

You shouldn’t feel this way

I am right

The explanation is for everything else but explaining.

Flaneur

To stroll is a science, it is the gastronomy of the eye. To walk is to vegetate, to stroll is to live

Honore de Balzac

Evolution God

Evolution does not tell you anything about whether or not God exists; it simply proves that, if he does exist, he really hates top-down central planning.

Quotes

Attributions rob quotations of their power, because our relationship to the speaker steals our attention from the idea that he spoke

Different capacities

Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

3 Women

You’re only allowed three great women in your lifetime. They come along like the great fighters, every ten years

Bronx Tales

True Friends

True friends do stuff for you when it’s inconvenient for them.

The soul is a dark forrest