Adnan > Adnan's Quotes

“Chance favors the connected mind.”
― Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

“Most often in history it was the conquerors who learned willingly from the conquered.”
― Eric Hoffer, The Ordeal of Change

“I, myself, am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.”
― Augusten Burroughs

“Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power”
― Eric Hoffer

“You deserve to need me, not to have me.”
― Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors

“There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.”
― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer

“There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate whenever they meet.”
― Eric Hoffer

“When I started reading the literature of molecular biology, I was stunned by certain descriptions. Admittedly, I was on the lookout for anything unusual, as my investigation had led me to consider that DNA and its cellular machinery truly were an extremely sophisticated technology of cosmic origin. But as I pored over thousands of pages of biological texts, I discovered a world of science fiction that seemed to confirm my hypothesis. Proteins and enzymes were described as 'miniature robots,' ribosomes were 'molecular computers,' cells were 'factories,' DNA itself was a 'text,' a 'program,' a 'language,' or 'data.' One only had to do a literal reading of contemporary biology to reach shattering conclusions; yet most authors display a total lack of astonishment and seem to consider that life is merely 'a normal physiochemical phenomenon.”
― Jeremy Narby, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

“people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change.”
― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.”
― Jeremy Narby, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

“It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.”
― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
― Mark Twain

“Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.”
― Eric Hoffer

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
― Socrates

“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.”
― Alejandro Jodorowsky

“Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.”
― Bill Moyers

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
― Herman Melville

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
― Aristotle

“The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
― Harry Crosby, Transit of Venus

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
― Isaac Asimov

“Think of it this way: There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.”
― Robert Greene, Mastery

“Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is...and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be...and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired-but it does to them.”
― Robert Heinlein

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
― Albert Einstein

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
― Socrates

“In the future, the great division will be between those who have trained themselves to handle these complexities and those who are overwhelmed by them -- those who can acquire skills and discipline their minds and those who are irrevocably distracted by all the media around them and can never focus enough to learn.”
― Robert Greene, Mastery

“Hide not your talents, they for use were made,
What's a sundial in the shade?”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”
― Albert Camus

“And so, onwards... along a path of wisdom, with a hearty tread, a hearty confidence.. however you may be, be your own source of experience. Throw off your discontent about your nature. Forgive yourself your own self. You have it in your power to merge everything you have lived through- false starts, errors, delusions, passions, your loves and your hopes- into your goal, with nothing left over.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits