Daniel > Daniel's Quotes

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“Don't be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you.”
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

“You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
― Plato

“Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

“In the past, censorship worked by blocking the flow of information. In the twenty-first century, censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information. [...] In ancient times having power meant having access to data. Today having power means knowing what to ignore.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

“In essence, terrorism is a show. Terrorists stage a terrifying spectacle of violence that captures our imagination and makes us feel as if we are sliding back into medieval chaos. Consequently states often feel obliged to react to the theatre of terrorism with a show of security, orchestrating immense displays of force, such as the persecution of entire populations or the invasion of foreign countries. In most cases, this overreaction to terrorism poses a far greater threat to our security than the terrorists themselves. Terrorists”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

“Terrorists are like a fly that tries to destroy a china shop. The fly is so weak that it cannot budge even a single teacup. So it finds a bull, gets inside its ear and starts buzzing. The bull goes wild with fear and anger, and destroys the china shop. (p.21)”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

“The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.”
― Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor

“The difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.”
― Adam Savage

“When in doubt, C-4.”
― Adam Savage

“The answer is to draw a line between a businessman's risk and a loss. As traders, we always take businessman's risks, but we may never take a loss greater than this predetermined risk.”
― Alexander Elder, The New Trading for a Living: Psychology, Discipline, Trading Tools and Systems, Risk Control, Trade Management

“Being simply “better than average” is not good enough. You have to be head and shoulders above the crowd to win a minus-sum game.”
― Alexander Elder, The New Trading for a Living: Psychology, Discipline, Trading Tools and Systems, Risk Control, Trade Management

“There is almost no human action or decision that cannot be made to look flawed and less sensible in the misleading light of hindsight.”
― Sidney Dekker, The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error'

“Underneath every simple, obvious story about ‘human error,’ there is a deeper, more complex story about the organization.”
― Sidney Dekker, The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error'

“I penetrated the outer cell membrane with a nanosyringe."
"You poked it with a stick?"
"No!" I said. "Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick.”
― Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

“I leaned to Dimitri. “Are all Russians crazy?” “Yes,” he said with a smile. “It is the only way to be Russian and happy at the same time.” “That’s…dark.” “That’s Russian!”
― Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

“Every pore of my being yells at me to go back to sleep, but I told Rocky I’d be back in two hours and I wouldn’t want him to think humans are untrustworthy. I mean…we’re pretty untrustworthy, but I don’t want him to know that.”
― Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

“Besides, if I had a nickel for every time I wanted to smack a kid’s parents for not teaching them even the most basic things…well…I’d have enough nickels to put in a sock and smack those parents with it.”
― Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

“No more words. We know them all, all the words that should not be said. But you have made my world more perfect.”
― Terry Pratchett, Nation

“The world is a globe — the farther you sail, the closer to home you are.”
― Terry Pratchett, Nation

“Thinking. This book contains some. Whether you try it at home is up to you.”
― Terry Pratchett, Nation

“If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember.”
― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies