“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt” - Bertrand Russell
I strongly recommend the book and I think that this passage is a good summary of its essence, a manifesto of sorts: “We all need a believable theory of change into which our actions fit. It needs to be radically more believable than today’s central narrative of ‘net zero’ stuck on top of business as usual, media as usual and politics as usual. So here is a best-case…
“The plural of anecdote is not data”
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people…
From Orwell’s 1984: The world of today is a bare, hungry, dilapidated place compared with the world that existed before 1914, and still more so if compared with the imaginary future to which the people of that period looked forward. In the early twentieth century, the vision of a future society unbelievably rich, leisured, orderly, and efficient - a glittering antiseptic world of glass and…
“Substance without style is like truth without beauty.” - Anon
“Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death. If, however, you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt; kind-hearted, but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder; then your soldiers must be likened to spoilt children;…
“You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventuality the confidence will follow.” - Carrie Fisher
Quite a neat number… 1,001 km of activity (cycling and running) achieved in 2016. Well then the goal for 2017 will be 1,000 miles… +60% year-on-year!
Did you know that authenticity is inextricably linked to happiness? To be authentic is to feel at home in your body, accepted into a particular group, and to feel true to our sense of values. It is a kind of confidence that doesn’t come from attaining something outside of ourselves, but knowing deeply we are enough whatever our particular feelings, needs, or skills are and that we add to the…
“We need role models who are fully integrated human beings, loving as well as strong, and who show that there need not be any contradiction between the two” - Conscious Capitalism - John Mackey, Raj Sisodia
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. - George Bernard Shaw
“The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions, without becoming disillusioned” - Antonio Gramsci
“Many people want to change the world; they don’t want to change themselves.” - Sane New World - Ruby Wax
“The most cognitively brilliant people usually have had to sacrifice their emotional selves. They live in a fog of fact rarely creating a new one, just regurgitating everything they’ve ever learnt and we’re supposed to think that’s smart. This also might mean they’re not top of the class on the morals front. They feel nothing so they can squeeze you dry without a wisp of remorse.” - Sane New World…
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” - Oscar Wilde
“Everything in moderation, including moderation” - Oscar Wilde
May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings have joy and the causes of joy. May all sentient beings remain in great equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.
“If you’re determined to think of yourself as limited, fearful, vulnerable, or scarred by past experience, know only that you have chosen to do so, and that the opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.” - The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness - by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
“What must it be like to just do, with no thoughts of why you are doing it, with no thoughts of whether or not you should? To have a purpose, and for that purpose to be enough?” - The Entire Animal - Gregory Heath