Jophin Mathai > Jophin's Quotes

“Equality today means “sameness,” rather than “oneness.” It is the sameness of abstractions, of the men who work in the same jobs, who have the same amusements, who read the same newspapers, who have the same feelings and the same ideas.”
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

“Laughter is a tangible evidence of hope.”
― Michael Jr.

“The truly gifted negotiator, then, is one whose initial position is exaggerated enough to allow for a series of reciprocal concessions that will yield a desirable final offer from the opponent, yet is not so outlandish as to be seen as illegitimate from the start.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“There is an element of deceit associated with interventionism, accelerating in a professionalized society. It’s much easier to sell “Look what I did for you” than “Look what I avoided for you.” Of course a bonus system based on “performance” exacerbates the problem.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder

“Most people don’t realize that when they use doubtful phrases they are setting standards for themselves. These standards become expectations and in the end will become self-fulfilling prophecies.”
― Kevin Horsley, Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive

“If we promoted justice and charity among men, we should be playing directly into the Enemy's hands; but if we guide them to the opposite behaviour, this sooner or later produces (for He permits it to produce) a war or a revolution, and the undisguisable issue of cowardice or courage awakes thousands of men from moral stupor. This, indeed, is probably one of the Enemy's motives for creating a dangerous world—a world in which moral issues really come to the point. He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
― William James

“A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing
well, is the chief instrument of cultural change.”
― Richard Rorty