Brian > Brian's Quotes

“That's what literature is. It's the people who went before us, tapping out messages from the past, from beyond the grave, trying to tell us about life and death! Listen to them!”
― Connie Willis, Passage

“If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.”
― Ayn Rand

“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another--their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.”
― Charlie Munger

“When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading; the greater part of the work of thought is already done for us. This is why it relieves us to take up a book after being occupied with our own thoughts. And in reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another’s thoughts. So it comes about that if anyone spends almost the whole day in reading, and by way of relaxation devotes the intervals to some thoughtless pastime, he gradually loses the capacity for thinking; just as the man who always rides, at last forgets how to walk. This is the case with many learned persons: they have read themselves stupid.”
― arthur schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms

“1. More than I want big returns, I want to be financially unbreakable. And if I’m unbreakable I actually think I’ll get the biggest returns, because I’ll be able to stick around long enough for compounding to work wonders.”
― Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money

“The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it, and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful it would not be worth knowing, and life would not be worth living. I am not speaking, of course, of the beauty which strikes the senses, of the beauty of qualities and appearances. I am far from despising this, but it has nothing to do with science. What I mean is that more intimate beauty which comes from the harmonious order of its parts, and which a pure intelligence can grasp.”
― Henri Poincaré, Science and Method

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be”
― Abraham Maslow

“To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; each saves us from thinking.”
― Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science: Science and Hypothesis, The Value of Science, Science and Method

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

“The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None

“Art is the proper task of life. ”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.”
― Elon Musk

“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.”
― Abraham Maslow

“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”
― Abraham Maslow

“In a word, growth and improvement can come through pain and conflict.”
― Abraham Harold Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being

“You will either step forward into growth, or you will step back into safety.”
― Abraham Maslow

“The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor.”
― Charlie Munger

“Crowd folly, the tendency of humans, under some circumstances, to resemble lemmings, explains much foolish thinking of brilliant men and much foolish behavior.”
― Charles T. Munger

“It’s not possible for investors to consistently outperform the market. Therefore you’re best served investing in a diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds [or exchange-traded funds].”
― Charles T. Munger

“Good ideas are rare—when the odds are greatly in your favor, bet (allocate) heavily.”
― Charles T. Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

“Stay within a well-defined circle of competence.”
― Charles T. Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

“Avoid unnecessary transactional taxes and frictional costs; never take action for its own sake.”
― Charles T. Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

“I want to think about things where I have an advantage over others. I don't want to play a game where people have an advantage over me. I don't play in a game where other people are wise and I am stupid. I look for a game where I am wise, and they are stupid. And believe me, it works better. God bless our stupid competitors. They make us rich.”
― Charles T. Munger, Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger