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The Empire improves every system it touches. Judge by any metric: safety, prosperity, trade opportunity, peace. Compare Imperial rule to what is happening now. Look outside. Is the world more peaceful since the revolution? I see nothing but death and chaos.
-- The Client, Madalorian
If you give a piece of an unknown metal alloy to a chemist, he will examine its structure by putting it under great pressure and exposing it to great heat; this gives him a better understanding of what that metal is composed of. The same can be said of human beings, who often give insight into their innermost being when under duress. We are defined in battle. The Greeks had a saying: “A captain only shows during a storm.”
-- Werner Herzog
One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought; for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.
-- Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
-- Frank Herbert, Dune
You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.
-- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
It's a funny thing about comin' home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You'll realize what's changed is you.
-- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.
-- Heat
You ever count the stars? I can't ever get the same number, they keep changin' on me.
-- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
You're pathetically predictable, like a moth to the flame.
-- Spider-Man
If people knew the evil caused by listening to others, they would not care about listening and would be far happier.
-- Smiles of a Summer Night
Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.
-- Bertrand Russell
There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today!
-- Network
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
-- Jean-Paul Sartre
Maybe all men got one big soul everybody's a part of, all faces are the same man.
-- The Thin Red Line
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
One goes step by step, step by step into the darkness. The movement itself is the only truth.
-- The Magician
Will you keep out all the sadness?
-- Where the Wild Things Are
Poured out like water on the ground. All I might have given for love's sake.
-- The Thin Red Line
What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power. You fear your anger, the drive to do great or terrible things.
-- Batman Begins
The greatest of all weaknesses is the fear of appearing weak.
-- J. B. Bossuet
I'd rather be told the cruel truth than be fed gentle lies.
-- High and Low
You will give the people an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.
-- Man of Steel
A man is morally free when, in full possession of his living humanity, he judges the world, and judges other men, with uncompromising sincerity.
-- George Santayana
Can I be honest with you? I am bad fucking news. I'm not your friend. I'm not gonna help you. I'm gonna break you. Any questions?
-- Zero Dark Thirty
Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Anything that has more upside than downside from random events (or certain shocks) is antifragile; the reverse is fragile.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Heuristics are simplified rules of thumb that make things simple and easy to implement. But their main advantage is that the user knows that they are not perfect, just expedient, and is therefore less fooled by their powers. They become dangerous when we forget that.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Just as being nice to the arrogant is no better than being arrogant toward the nice, being accommodating toward anyone committing a nefarious action condones it.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Many, like the great Roman statesman Cato the Censor, looked at comfort, almost any form of comfort, as a road to waste.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
And someone who has made plenty of errors - though never the same error more than once - is more reliable than someone who has never made any.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility; it results from some ecological or naturalistic wisdom, and is not always bad- at an existential level, it is my body rebelling against its entrapment.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Evidence of absence is not absence of evidence, a simple point that has the following implications: for the antifragile, good news tends to be absent from past data, and for the fragile it is the bad news that doesn't show easily.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
The minute I was bored with a book or a subject I moved to another one, instead of giving up on reading altogether- when you are limited to the school material and you get bored, you have a tendency to give up and do nothing or play hooky out of discouragement. The trick is to be bored with a specific book, rather than with the act of reading. So the number of pages absorbed could grow faster than otherwise.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Indeed, the most severe mistake made in life is to mistake the unintelligible for the unintelligent - something Nietzsche figured out.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
If something that makes no sense to you (say, religion - if you are an atheist - or some age-old habit or practice called irrational); if that something has been around for a very, very long time, then, irrational or not, you can expect it to stick around much longer, and outlive those who call for its demise.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Ralph Nader has a simple rule: people voting for war need to have at least one descendant (child or grandchild) exposed to combat. For the Romans, engineers needed to spend some time under the bridge they built - something that should be required of financial engineers today. The English went further and had the families of the engineers spend time with them under the bridge after it was built.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Never ask anyone for their opinion, forecast, or recommendation. Just ask them what they have - or don't have - in their portfolio.
-- Nassim Taleb - Antifragile
Suckers try to win arguments, nonsuckers try to win.
-- Fat Tony
Happiness is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
Gray is not a substitute for black and white.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
It is not our affluence, or our plumbing, or our clogged freeways that grip the imagination of others. Rather, it is the values upon which our system is built.
-- Senator J. William Fulbright
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
-- Groucho Marx
Trust is a greater compliment than affection. With integrity comes respect.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
There are, basically, three kinds of people: the unsuccessful, the temporarily successful, and those who become and remain successful. The difference, I am convinced, is character.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
-- William Shedd
Leadership is about taking risks. If your life is free of failure, you aren't much of a leader. Take no risks, and you risk more than ever.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment.
-- Will Rogers
Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.
-- Edward Murrow
When reminded of our core values, the tendency for deception decreases.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.
-- William Hazlitt
Although we regularly treat the terms as if they are equals, there is a difference between admiration (popularity) and respect. The former has to do with positive, outward attributes; the latter is a positive recognition of one's inner strength and character. We admire celebrities, but we don't necessarily respect them. We respect great teachers, but we don't always like them
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
Some people earn admiration and respect. If you must choose one, however, go for respect every time.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
In every walk of life, we must believe we can succeed or, by definition, we already have failed.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
When we seek to be like the next person, we lose autonomy. Failure often is the result of following the crowd.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
Having spoken at hundreds of funerals in my lifetime, I have discovered that final remarks relate a great deal about the deceased. It would be a fascinating experience to hear, in advance, what will be said in our eulogy. Few words are wasted over one’s academic achievements, professional career, or wealth. Families receive major play, but the most spotlighted characteristic is how the dearly departed treated others.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
Every day, our eulogies are being written.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
True giving is doing something for somebody who can never repay you.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
Philanthropy is plain good business. It energizes a company.
-- Jon Huntsman - Winners Never Cheat
Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence. Superior leadership is often a matter of superb instinct. When faced with a tough decision, use the time available to gather information that will inform your instinct.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
What's the situation? What's the mission? What are the different courses of action? How do they compare with one another? Which looks most likely to succeed? Now, follow your informed instinct, decide, and execute forcefully; throw the mass of your forces and energy behind the choice.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
Success ultimately rests on small things, lots of small things. Leaders have to have a feel for small things- a feel for what is going on in the depths of an organization where small things reside.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
When something goes well, make sure you share the credit down and around the whole organization. Let all employees believe they were the ones who did it. They were. Send out awards, phone calls, notes, letters, pats on the back, smiles, promotions- anything to spread the credit. People need recognition and a sense of worth as much as they need food and water.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
Whenever you place the cause of one of your actions outside yourself, it's an excuse and not a reason.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
Good leaders set vision, missions, and goals. Great leaders inspire every follower at every level to internalize their purpose, and to understand that their purpose goes far beyond the mere details of their job.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
Perpetual optimism, believing in yourself, believing in your purpose, believing you will prevail, and demonstrating passion and confidence is a force multiplier. If you believe and have prepared your followers, the followers will believe.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
Being happy or sad is not the point, he says, with magnificent grandeur: I invite the entire spectrum, shall we call it, of feeling. Because that is my greatest resource as a film actor. I need to be able to feel everything.
It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?
-- Ronald Reagan
In every senior job I've had I've tried to create an environment of professionalism and the very highest standards. When it was necessary to get a job done, I expected my subordinates to work around the clock. When that was not necessary, I wanted them to work normal hours, go home at a decent time, play with the kids, enjoy family and friends, read a novel, clear their heads, daydream, and refresh themselves. I wanted them to have a life outside the office. I am paying them for the quality of their work, not for the hours they work. That kind of environment has always produced the best results for me.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
I trust you to know how to get your work done without me maintaining a sign-out sheet on you.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
Always show more kindness than seems necessary, because the person receiving it needs it more than you will ever know.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
I wanted them to know they weren't just janitors. I could't do my job without them, and the department relied on them. There are no trivial jobs in any successful organization. But there are all too many trivial leaders who don't understand this oh so simple and easy to apply principle.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
The sergeant has been with them every step of the way: teaching, cajoling, enforcing, bringing out of them strength and confidence they didn't know they had.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
Kindness is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of confidence. If you have developed a reputation for kindness and consideration, then even the most unpleasant decisions will go down easier because everyone will understand why you are doing what you are doing. They will realize that your decision must be necessary, and is not arbitrary or without empathy.
-- Powell, Colin (2012-05-22). It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
-- Will Rogers
Business is like running a marathon where the course isn't clearly marked and there might be no finish line. Even though you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
-- Will Rogers
I remember my mother when she was dyin', looked all shrunk up and gray. I asked her if she was afraid. She just shook her head. I was afraid to touch the death I seen in her. I couldn't find nothin' beautiful or uplifting about her goin’ back to God.
-- Thin Red Line
But in despair there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when one is very acutely conscious of the hopelessness of one's position.
-- Dostoyevsky
You know the good years when you're in them, or you just wait for them until you get ass cancer and realize that the good years came and went? Because there's a feeling - you might notice it sometimes - this feeling like life has slipped through your fingers like the future is behind you, like it's always been behind you.
-- True Detective