Pragmatic Action Quotes

“Why would insults matter to me? Insults were insults, what could they do? A superficial person would be angry due to curses and would be happy due to praises. These were just bystanders’ ways of looking at you. Those who lived according to others’ points of view were really pitiful. They are just pawns, merely restrained dogs. What truly stalls a person’s success is not talent, but the mindset. Criticize, trying to impart these morals to the people, not allowing others to have more freedom than them. In this process, they would even enjoy this ridiculous moral superiority and bliss. Any organization, once a person is born, would impart their morals and rules, constantly brainwashing. Those that want to surpass humanity’s achievements have to break this restraint on their mindset. Sadly, most people are trapped by this their entire lives, using this to move forward with motivation and even use their chained collar as a symbol of pride. A superficial person would be angry due to curses and would be happy due to praises. These were just bystanders’ ways of looking at you. Those who lived according to others’ points of view were really pitiful.”
― Gu Zhen Ren

“Being pragmatic is not surrender. Being pragmatic is not cynicism. Being pragmatic is not selling out. In truth, being pragmatic is often the only real path to progress in an uncertain, complicated world.”
― Tom C.W. Lin, The Capitalist and the Activist: Corporate Social Activism and the New Business of Change

“Inflame your mind with your heart's desire, then start taking pragmatic action on the material plane to trigger the manifestation of your desire.”
― Laurence Galian, Beyond Duality: The Art of Transcendence

“Being pragmatic means recognizing systemic flaws, shortcomings, and outright wrongs, yet nevertheless trying to make it work better. Being pragmatic means embracing reality in all of its contradictions, complexities, and ambiguities of the present and the past, while keeping your eyes on the prize for the future.”
― Tom C.W. Lin, The Capitalist and the Activist: Corporate Social Activism and the New Business of Change

“Being pragmatic often means being both urgent and patient, and open to accepting compromises and less-than-full measures in order to take forward steps that make larger shifts possible.”
― Tom C.W. Lin, The Capitalist and the Activist: Corporate Social Activism and the New Business of Change

“Progress often requires pragmatism, not purity or perfection. We cannot work only with individuals and institutions that we agree with on every single position on every issue across every single point on a long timeline.”
― Tom C.W. Lin, The Capitalist and the Activist: Corporate Social Activism and the New Business of Change

“Lest the discipline should live up to its lamentable reputation as being little more than speculation, mellifluous ideals, and the disconsolate profligacy of ink, effort, and time, the act of philosophizing must lead somewhere.”
― Jack Abaza, The Definitive Answer to the Meaning of Life