“A mathematician is not a man who can readily manipulate figures; often he cannot,” Bush wrote. “He is primarily an individual who is skilled in the use of symbolic logic on a high plane, and especially he is a man of intuitive judgment.”
“When you can't bear something but it goes on anyway, the person who survives isn't you anymore; you've changed and become someone else, a new person, the one who did bear it after all.”
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―
“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
― Pensées
― Pensées
“No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.”
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―
“I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.”
― The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
― The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
Seattle's Capitol Hill
— 82 members
— last activity Jul 11, 2020 09:36AM
Group for Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. You don't have to live in Capitol Hill to join, just like reading, discussing, or finding new books of ...more
Infrastructure Club
— 10 members
— last activity Mar 26, 2023 05:47PM
Readings of interest to nerds for critical systems and the built environment
~books
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— last activity Nov 06, 2024 04:39AM
A list of favourites from ~books. No theme other than "something different." Feel free to add anything you're reading that helped define your own tast ...more
Hans’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Hans’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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