Friday, January 19, 2024

Without Comment


Holding your tongue requires discipline








A new report claims “resounding evidence” shows that high corporate profits are a main driver of ongoing inflation, and companies continue to keep prices high even as their inflationary costs drop.  Groundwork Collaborative

 “I have but one human body. I can only wear so many sweaters.” Unknown

Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira is accused of leaking highly classified military intelligence from the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts where he worked. Teixeira, who’s 21, has been behind bars since his April arrest on charges stemming from the most consequential intelligence leak in years.  Dec 2023

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.  Franklin D. Roosevelt

Only the Protestants think that every day in every way, life is getting better and better. What do they know?"  Mary Gordon

Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.  W. Demming

"There are really only two reasons to write: desperation or revenge."  Elizabeth Hardwick

The most important factor in determining a person’s future is when and where they are born. Each of us, born into any other situation, would experience a different outcome. .. I likely would not be an entrepreneur or an academic had I been born in South Sudan. If I’d been born in 1920s Germany, I’d likely have been a Nazi who perished on a Russian field.  Being born one year earlier or later can make a big difference. People who graduate into a recession earn less for 10 to 15 years than those who graduate amid prosperity. Fate also changes block to block: One of the strongest signals of life expectancy (and much else) is the ZIP code where you’re born. Within the same city, life expectancy can vary by 30 years based on ZIP code.    Scott Galloway

“No two persons ever read the same book.”  Edmund Wilson

When Einstein was asked what he would have done if his theory of general relativity had not held up, he replied, “Then I would have been sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct.”

“A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”  B F Skinner

Think before you act and, once you’ve acted, think about what you did. Try to be thoughtful. Don’t overreact. Focus on what you can control and remain indifferent to what you can’t. Keep in mind, too, that you’ll die eventually, so don’t waste time. These modest predicates make up the cool white heart of classical Stoicism.

Display those virtues which are wholly in your own power—integrity, dignity, hard work, self-denial, contentment, frugality, kindness, independence, simplicity, discretion, magnanimity. Do you not see how many virtues you can already display without any excuse of lack of talent or aptitude?  Marcus Aurelius

Once, asked about his writing routine, Doctorow said: "Here's how it goes: I'm up at the stroke of 10 or 10:30. I have breakfast and read the papers, and then it's lunchtime. Then maybe a little nap after lunch and out to the gym, and before I know it, it's time to have a drink."  

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”  Somerset Maugham

And after I have gone someone will say, "Oh, him. I thought he was still around. I used to see him everywhere, only, all this time, I thought he was someone else."  Louis Jenkins

"No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you" Aleichem

“But ultimately, <life> is a lesson in humility. The very best thing about your life is a short stage in someone else’s story. And it is enough.”  Michael Gerson, eloquent columnist for the Washington Post, recently passed away. 

"Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.”  Ray Bradbury

"More and more, online news sources will give them only what they wanted in advance. [...] Custom filters are going to make Americans even more ignorant than they already are, which is plenty.”  Anne Fadiman

"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again."  Andre Gide

"Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain't so." Mark Twain

"Politics is like dice: the better the player, the worse the man." C.J. Sansom

“A human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea.”
James Agee

“Just try to be decent. Whether you were decent—that’s what will be remembered."  
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski

And Wendell Berry is a wealth of wisdom

"Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you."
"You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it."
"Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup."


Copyright ©  2024  Dave Hoplin

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