Wendi Lau > Wendi's Quotes

“The goal of text generation is to throw confused, wide-eyed words on a page; the goal of text revision is to scrub the rods clean so that they sound nice and can go out in public.”
― Paul J. Silvia, How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing

“It is clearly absurd to limit the term 'education' to a person's formal schooling.”
― Murray N. Rothbard, Education: Free & Compulsory

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
― George Orwell, Animal Farm

“Landing on your butt twenty thousand times is where great performance comes from.”
― Geoff Colvin, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

“Follow your passion, study it assiduously, and as you pursue it, strive in addition to become more intensely human. Doing so will improve your material well-being as the economy evolves, and it will bring you a richer, fuller life.”
― Geoff Colvin, Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will

“Children whose "parents are very attentive to their elementary needs are likely to develop trust and security, which may promote prosocial orientation," note psychology researchers, but those parents probably weren't consciously trying to create cooperative adults; they were just being good, attentive parents.”
― Geoff Colvin, Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will

“Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus’ som’thin’ that was his. Som’thin’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody throw him off of it.”
― John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

“The moral of the story is if some stupid idiot is trying to push you around, don't be afraid to show some attitude, stand your ground, and rock them like a hurricane.”
― Chris Jericho, No Is a Four-Letter Word: How I Failed Spelling but Succeeded in Life

“We all only have so much mental energy to spend, so why waste it worrying about the people who doubt you?...put that mental energy to better use, like achieving your goals and making your dreams a reality.”
― Chris Jericho, No Is a Four-Letter Word: How I Failed Spelling but Succeeded in Life

“As far as kids are concerned, good mothers are known by their character, not by their education, clothes, or coaches they supply.”
― Meg Meeker, M.D.

“So we must focus on reality and what our kids tell us about ourselves, which is that what they really want and need is more of what we do best - talk, encourage, and spend time with them.”
― Meg Meeker, M.D.

“The legacy you pass on to your children is your character, not your stocks or bonds. So dig for the best parts of your character and make them surface again and again. When you do this, you will begin to feel your worth and your children will have the added benefit of learning from you.”
― Meg Meeker, M.D.

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Memoirs of the life & writings of Benjamin Franklin

“Having a baby is like suddenly getting the world's worst roommate.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“My son, Sam, at three and a half, had these keys to a set of plastic handcuffs, and one morning he intentionally locked himself out of the house. I was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper when I heard him stick his plastic keys into the doorknob and try to open the door. Then I heard him say, "Oh, shit." My whole face widened, like the guy in Edvard Munch's Scream. After a moment I got up and opened the front door.
"Honey," I said, "what'd you just say?"
"I said, 'Oh, shit,'" he said.
"But, honey, that's a naughty word. Both of us have absolutely got to stop using it. Okay?"
He hung his head for a moment, nodded, and said, "Okay, Mom." Then he leaned forward and said confidentially, "But I'll tell you why I said 'shit.'" I said Okay, and he said, "Because of the fucking keys!”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her. (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“Here is the best true story on giving I know, and it was told by Jack Kornfield of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre. An eight-year-old boy had a younger sister who was dying of leukemia, and he was told that without a blood transfusion she would die. His parents explained to him that his blood was probably compatible with hers, and if so, he could be the blood donor. They asked him if they could test his blood. He said sure. So they did and it was a good match. Then they asked if he would give his sister a pint of blood, that it could be her only chance of living. He said he would have to think about it overnight. The next day he went to his parents and said he was willing to donate the blood. So they took him to the hospital where he was put on a gurney beside his six-year-old sister. Both of them were hooked up to IVs. A nurse withdrew a pint of blood from the boy, which was then put in the girl’s IV. The boy lay on his gurney in silence while the blood dripped into his sister, until the doctor came over to see how he was doing. Then the boy opened his eyes and asked, “How soon until I start to die?”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“I like to think that Henry James said his classic line, "A writer is someone on whom nothing is lost," while looking for his glasses, and that they were on top of his head.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“if you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“Try to write in a directly emotional way, instead of being too subtle or oblique. Don't be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Don’t worry about appearing sentimental. Worry about being unavailable; worry about being absent or fraudulent. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act - truth is always subversive.”
― Anne Lamott

“I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself (or, with Lord Acton, as the highest political good), but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that mankind cherishes: moral virtue, civilization, the arts and sciences, economic prosperity.”
― Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty Volumes I-IV

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world today. Of course not all of them are radicals. The majority of them are peaceful people. The radicals are estimated to be between 15-25%, according to all intelligence services around the world. That leaves 75% of them - peaceful people. But when you look at 15-25% of the world Muslim population, you're looking at 180 million to 300 million people dedicated to the destruction of Western civilization. That is as big as the United States. So why should we worry about the radical 15-25%? Because it is the radicals that kill. Because it is the radicals that behead and massacre. When you look throughout history, when you look at all the lessons of history, most Germans were peaceful. Yet the Nazis drove the agenda. And as a result, 60 million people died, almost 14 million in concentration camps. 6 million were Jews. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. When you look at Russia, most Russians were peaceful as well. Yet the Russians were able to kill 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. When you look at China for example, most Chinese were peaceful as well. Yet the Chinese were able to kill 70 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. When you look at Japan prior to World War II, most Japanese were peaceful as well. Yet, Japan was able to butcher its way across Southeast Asia, killing 12 million people, mostly killed by bayonets and shovels. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. On September 11th in the United States we had 2.3 million Arab Muslims living in the United States. It took 19 hijackers - 19 radicals - to bring America down to its knees, destroy the World Trade Center, attack the Pentagon and kill almost 3000 Americans that day. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. So for all our power of reason, and for all us talking about moderate and peaceful Muslims, I'm glad you're here. But where are the others speaking out? And since you are the only Muslim representative in here, you took the limelight instead of speaking about why our government - I assume you're an American (the Muslim says yes) - As an American citizen, you sat in this room, and instead of standing up and saying a question, or asking something about our four Americans that died and what our government is doing to correct the problem, you stood there to make a point about peaceful, moderate Muslims. I wish you had brought ten with you to question about how we could hold our government responsible. It is time we take political correctness and throw it in the garbage where it belongs.” - Brigette Gabriel (transcript from Benghazi Accountability Coalition - Heritage Foundation)”
― J.K. Sheindlin, The People vs Muhammad - Psychological Analysis

“The most dangerous thing any nation faces is a citizenry capable of trusting a liar to lead them.”
― Andy Andrews, How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think

“Somehow, for the most part, our parents and grandparents managed to disagree with their neighbors and still remain neighborly. And they usually did it from their front porches. Today, most of us don’t even have front porches. We have retreated to the backyard, where a single opinion can be isolated and enforced by a privacy fence.”
― Andy Andrews, How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think

“the danger to America is not a single politician with ill intent. Or even a group of them. The most dangerous thing any nation faces is a citizenry capable of trusting a liar to lead them.”
― Andy Andrews, How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think

“Sometime during my study of the Dark Ages and Middle Ages, I uncovered an odd paradox that exists in our minds about time gone by. It is a difference most people don’t discern between history and the past. Simply stated, the past is what is real and true, while history is merely what someone recorded. If you don’t think there is a difference, experience an event in person and then read about it in the newspaper the next day, after witnesses have been interviewed. It might be shocking for many of us to realize that what we know as “history” can actually be a total fabrication, created from the imagination of someone with an ax to grind. Or perhaps, and it certainly happened in the Middle Ages, history was simply recorded by the man with the sharpest ax.”
― Andy Andrews, How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think