Two Thoughts (6 - 12 April)
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“Ben Franklin, Marie Curie and Leonardo da Vinci didn’t live to see the age of Twitter, and that’s probably a good thing. But Jim’s curated collection of bite-sized wisdom shows us what a social media feed might feel like if one were able to “follow” all the great minds of history. All signal, no noise.”
– Brom Rector
Sunday, 6 April
Two thoughts from Thomas Schelling
"There is a tendency in our planning to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable."
"One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination, is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him.”
Monday, 7 April
Two thoughts from Henry Rollins
“Don’t think about it. Do it. Don’t talk about it. Do it.”
“We all learn lessons in life. Some stick, some don’t. I have always learned more from rejection and failure than from acceptance and success.”
Tuesday, 8 April
Two thoughts from Sigrid Nunez
“Be kind, because everyone you meet is going through a struggle.”
“Here is what I learned: Simone Weil was right. Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.”
Wednesday, 9 April
Two thoughts from Atul Gawande
“You may not control life’s circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.”
“Culture is the sum total of shared habits and expectations.”
Thursday, 10 April
Two thoughts from James G. Frazer
"For there are strong grounds for thinking that, in the evolution of thought, magic has preceded religion."
"In point of fact magicians appear to have often developed into chiefs and kings."
Friday, 11 April
Two thoughts from Samuel Arbesman
“Science requires an idea to be refutable. It is not good enough for a concept to seem compelling; it must have the potential for a new fact to come along and render it false.”
“Facts change in regular and mathematically understandable ways.”
Saturday, 12 April
Two thoughts from William Trevor
“I believe in not quite knowing. A writer needs to be doubtful, questioning. I write out of curiosity and bewilderment.”
"I get melancholy if I don't [write]. I need the company of people who don't exist."
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dear jim,
great quotes as always! some of my faves this week:
Sigrid Nunez:
“Be kind, because everyone you meet is going through a struggle.”
Thomas Schelling:
"There is a tendency in our planning to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable."
"One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination, is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him.”
William Trevor:
“I believe in not quite knowing. A writer needs to be doubtful, questioning. I write out of curiosity and bewilderment.”
thank you for sharing!
love
myq