Quotes

This is a list of favourite quotes that have influenced my thinking.

• I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful.

  – Friedrich NIETZSCHE

• Beliefs are hypotheses to be tested, not treasures to be guarded.

  – Philip TETLOCK

  Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

• How many ‘nos’ are there? Billions. And how many ‘yeses’? Just one.

  – Sergiu CELIBIDACHE

• Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

  – Michael POLLAN

• Where do you seek the spiritual? You seek the spiritual in every ordinary thing that you do every day. Sweeping the floor, watering the vegetables, and washing the dishes become holy and sacred if mindfulness is there. With mindfulness and concentration, everything becomes spiritual.

  – Thích Nhất HẠNH

  How to Eat, p 72

• [I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.\

  – Maya ANGELOU](/content/quotes/feel/index.html)

• I began to develop a system in which freedom was possible, and I conquered my own freedom

  – Pierre BOULEZ

  Pierre Boulez | Universal Edition

• Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

  – Mark TWAIN

• We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

  – ARISTOTLE

• We humans love to investigate things. Often we want the results of our investigations to fit a certain mold or prove a certain theory, but at times, we are open and allow things simply to reveal themselves. ... With mindfulness, investigation takes us deeply into life and into reality.

  – Thích Nhất HẠNH

• What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things. ... So when we are thwarted or upset or distressed, let us never blame someone else but rather ourselves, that is, our own judgments.

  – EPICTETUS

  Handbook (Encheiridion), 5

• What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.

  – Werner HEISENBERG

• To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.

  – Leonard BERNSTEIN

• If one has achieved a goal to the fullest extent possible in a given context then the achievement is perfect in the rational sense of the term. Subsequent improvements based on a wider range of knowledge or higher level of ability will not invalidate that achievement or subtract from its value. It remains perfect by the standards of the earlier context.

  – Harry BINSWANGER

• When there is wrong view and one knows it is wrong view, it is already Right View. When there is Right View and one knows it is Right View, that is also Right View.

  – Majjhima Nikāya

• You're going to spend at least a third of your life working. It's important to find something that you really like to do ... The second part is, find something that not too many other people want to do so you can make pretty good money out it.

  – Eugene FAMA

  Rational Reminder, Episode 200

• [There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.\

  – Colin POWELL](/content/quotes/success/index.html)

• Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.

  – Lao TZU

• [Only the unknown frightens men. But, for whoever confronts it, it is already no longer the unknown.\

  – Antoine de SAINT-EXUPÉRY](/content/quotes/unknown/index.html)

• I do remember that I was happy; and if that is what it means to have a vocation, then it is a very pleasant thing.

  – Gabriel FAURÉ

• When a wise person suffers, she asks herself, 'What can I do to be free from this suffering? Who can help me? What have I done to free myself from this suffering?'

  – Thích Nhất HẠNH

  The Heart Of The Buddhas Teaching