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, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is the one thing which by inspection destroys such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it, and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If that glory can be killed, we are lost.”
Mahatma Gandhi, political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement and advocate of non-violent civil protest (ahimsa):
“The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within.”
This entry was posted on December 28, 2007, and is filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
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 of war, where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots, as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them
a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.
When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.
Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.
Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.
Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
Hermann Göring, second in command of the German Third Reich during the reign of Adolph Hitler:
“Naturally, the common people don’t want war … but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
Ron Paul, US Congressman and 2008 Presidential Candidate:
“Terror is a tactic. We can not wage ‘war’ against a tactic.”
Isaac Asimov, celebrated science-fiction author:
“Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent.”
Ronald Regan, 40th President of the United States:
“History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”
Ernest Hemingway, American novelist:
“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”
Benjamin Franklin, early American polymath and Founding Father of the United States:
“Never has there been a good war or a bad peace.”
This entry was posted on August 21, 2007, and is filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Today has been an interesting day. Within 4 hours of posting the new Personal MBA manifesto and reading list, I was simultaneously featured on Reddit, StumbleUpon, Seth Godin’s blog, and many, many blogs. As a result, my server got tired and shut down due to lack of capacity. (Mind you, these pages are pretty small, and I’m using a very good web host.)
I am working diligently to get personalmba.com back online. Thanks for your patience!
This entry was posted on August 13, 2007, and is filed under Announcements. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I just launched the new version of the Personal MBA manifesto and recommended reading list. For details, read this post on the PMBA blog.
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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.”
This entry was posted on June 22, 2007, and is filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
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.”
This entry was posted on June 20, 2007, and is filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
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 his merry way, his heart light, his soul at peace, without a goal, without nostalgia, without impatience. The world is his kingdom, and suffices him. The present is his eternity, and delights him. He has nothing to prove, since he has no appearances to keep up, and nothing to seek, since everything is before him. What is more simple than simplicity? What lighter? It is the virtue of wise men and the wisdom of saints.”
Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance genius, artist, inventor, and polymath:
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Antoine De Saint-Exupery, French aviator and author of The Little Prince:
“Perfection is achieved not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing left to take away… And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Jason Fried, founder of 37signals:
“You don’t need to outdo the competition. It’s expensive and defensive. Underdo your competition. We need more simplicity and clarity.”
John Gall, systems theorist:
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.”
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German art historian and archaeologist:
“Unity and simplicity are the two true sources of beauty.”
Thomas Aquinas, theologean:
“If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments where one suffices.”
Elaine St. James, author:
“Simplifying is not necessarily about getting rid of everything we’ve worked so hard for… It’s about deciding what’s important to us, and gracefully letting go of the things that aren’t.”
This entry was posted on June 19, 2007, and is filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
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 our feelings.”
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Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Tibetian Buddhist monk and teacher:
“Those who seek happiness in pleasure, wealth, glory, power, and heroics are as naive as the child who tries to catch a rainbow and wear it as a coat.”
Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, French mystery novelist:
“Pleasure is the happiness of madmen, while happiness is the pleasure of sages.”
Luca and Francesco Cavalli-Sforza, geneticists and human diversity experts:
“Happiness does not come automatically. It is not a gift that good fortune bestows upon us and a reversal of fortune takes back. It depends on us alone. One does not become happy overnight, but with patient labor, day after day. Happiness is constructed, and that requires effort and time. In order to become happy, we have to learn how to change ourselves.”
Tibetan proverb:
“Seeking happiness outside ourselves is like waiting for sunshine in a cave facing north.”
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Marcus Aurelius, Stoic philosopher and Emperor of Rome from 161 – 180 CE:
“Look within; within is the fountain of all good.”
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