Pablo Picasso, cubist painter and sculptor:
“You must always work not just within but below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle five. In that way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery and you create a feeling of strength [...]
Epictetus, Greek Stoic philosopher:
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those that he has.”
John Steinbeck, Nobel Prize-winning novelist, in East of Eden:
“And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, [...]
Mahatma Gandhi, political and spiritual leader of the Indian Independence Movement:
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”
Sun Tzu, early Chinese general and author of The Art of War:
In the operations [...]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States of America:
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
Ron Paul, 10-term American Congressman from Texas and 2008 US Presidential Candidate:
“No matter how well intentioned, an authoritarian government always abuses its powers.”
Anais Nin, French author:
“When we blindly adopt [...]
George Washington, first elected president of the United States of America:
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States of America and author of the Declaration of Independence:
“That government is best which governs the least, [...]
Charles Darwin, creator of the theory of biological evolution via natural selection, stating an early version of what is now known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect:
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”
Herbert Simon, American social and political scientist:
“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”
Andre Comte-Sponville, contemporary French philosopher:
“The simple person lives the way he breathes, with no more effort or glory, with no more affectation and without shame… Simplicity is freedom, buoyancy, transparency. As simple as the air, as free as the air… The simple person does not take himself too seriously or too tragically. He goes on [...]
Charlie Munger, master investor and long-time business associate of Warren Buffett:
“The ethos of not fooling yourself is one of the best you could possibly have. It’s powerful because it’s so rare.”
Ovid, Early Roman poet who is considered the greatest literary master of the elegiac couplet:
“We are slow to believe that which, if believed, would hurt [...]