OT: slow day for non-golfers: What quotes mean a lot to you?

[LionJim]

I have this in my e-mail signature:
“The biggest hindrance to learning is fear of showing one’s self a fool,” from William Least-Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways.”

I really took that quote to heart while in graduate school. Every time I visited my advisor I would pause outside his door and say to myself, “Now, Jim, don’t be afraid of sounding like an idiot,” and then I’d knock. My advisor’s own advisor is a quite renowned mathematician, and I once asked my advisor what sort of relationship he had with him and he replied, “Oh, I was convinced he thought I was an idiot.” Boy, you can't imagine how much that helped my state of mind.

 

[Aardvark86]

I have this in my e-mail signature:
“The biggest hindrance to learning is fear of showing one’s self a fool,” from William Least-Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways.”

I really took that quote to heart while in graduate school. Every time I visited my advisor I would pause outside his door and say to myself, “Now, Jim, don’t be afraid of sounding like an idiot,” and then I’d knock. My advisor’s own advisor is a quite renowned mathematician, and I once asked my advisor what sort of relationship he had with him and he replied, “Oh, I was convinced he thought I was an idiot.” Boy, you can't imagine how much that helped my state of mind.

Plenty going on for non-golfers, to wit:
"We're not gonna be suck this year."

To take it to the more serious side, my American Gov't professor, a guy who had worked in the OLC at DOJ and was a relatively prominent originalist, once told us that we would be better off in life if we learned, and accepted, the fact that people hold to their opinions strongly, even when they are completely irrational. To illustrate his point, he advised us simply to go up to someone and tell them that their baby was ugly.

"Spiritually/religiously," how about: "While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him."

And beyond that, see below in my sig block. Words to live by.

 

[LionDeNittany]

From The Secret, not so much this particular quote but the idea:

“Whatever is going on in your mind is what you are attracting.”

LdN

 

[Woodpecker]

“When you believe in things that you don’t understand then you suffer”
Stevie Wonder

 

[Aardvark86]

“When you believe in things that you don’t understand then you suffer”
Stevie Wonder

My wife once inadvertently stole Stevie Wonder's grocery cart at the Whole Foods.

 

[Obliviax]

I love the man in the arena speech. So many good one's.

However, I used to work for a man who grew up in Taiwan and I've adopted his favorite line:

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is today.

I heard another one that was pretty cool the other day: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with friends.

 

[UncleRoyBiggins]

To BE the best, you have to BEAT the best.

 

[sluggo72]

If it’s to be, it’s up to me

 

[artsandletters]

“When you believe in things that you don’t understand then you suffer”
Stevie Wonder

Lots of suffering going on.

 

[artsandletters]

“I know myself, but that is all.” Amory Blaine from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise.

 

[ericstratton-rushchairman]

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

 

[artsandletters]

Things are more like they are today than they’ve ever been before.

 

[Nit Nolte]

Your position is weak if you take comfort in the ignorance of those who disagree.

 

[STPGopherfan]

"You ain't scared of me"-Ed Bassmaster

 

[artsandletters]

Your position is weak if you take comfort in the ignorance of those who disagree.

With exceptions.

 

[fkkkjm]

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people full of doubts

 

[LionJim]

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people full of doubts

Yeats:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

 

[Woodpecker]

“No one respects the flame quite like the fool who's badly burned”
Pete Townsend

 

[LionJim]

“No one respects the flame quite like the fool who's badly burned”
Pete Townsend

I would have thought you’d go with, “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood,” the last line of Still Life With Woodpecker.

 

[Woodpecker]

I would have thought you’d go with, “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood,” the last line of Still Life With Woodpecker.

Yum

 

[jimarnp]

I have this in my e-mail signature:
“The biggest hindrance to learning is fear of showing one’s self a fool,” from William Least-Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways.”

I really took that quote to heart while in graduate school. Every time I visited my advisor I would pause outside his door and say to myself, “Now, Jim, don’t be afraid of sounding like an idiot,” and then I’d knock. My advisor’s own advisor is a quite renowned mathematician, and I once asked my advisor what sort of relationship he had with him and he replied, “Oh, I was convinced he thought I was an idiot.” Boy, you can't imagine how much that helped my state of mind.

" The more you know, the more you know you don't know" --- Aristotle--- (encourages humility )

 

[Obliviax]

“No one respects the flame quite like the fool who's badly burned”
Pete Townsend

We've got to judge the judge
Got to find the finds
We've got to scheme the schemes
Have to line the lines
We must stake the stakes
And show the shown
We must take the takes
And know the known
Try to place the place
Where we can face the face.
We got to face the face
Try to place the place
Where we can face the face
Face the face, got to face the face.
Face the face, got to face the face.

 

[wb95thebeav]

 

[Op2]

“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that." --John Stuart Mill

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me /
Than have to have a frontal lobotomy /
I might be drunk but at least I'm not insane."
--Some song I heard once.

 

[Uh Clem]

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!"

- Rudyard Kipling

 

[ThePennsyOracle]

"Water the grass that's already green"

 

[ILLINOISLION]

You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead.

The dirt is not always browner on the other side of the fence.

He who hestitates has slow reactions.

 

[johnmpsu]

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" Warren Miller

"Don't take life too seriously, because you can't come out of it alive" Warren Miller

"The idea is to die young as late as late as possible" Ashley Montagu

“No one ever said on their deathbed ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.’ ” — Harold Kushner

 

[poker1]

I have this in my e-mail signature:
“The biggest hindrance to learning is fear of showing one’s self a fool,” from William Least-Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways.”

I really took that quote to heart while in graduate school. Every time I visited my advisor I would pause outside his door and say to myself, “Now, Jim, don’t be afraid of sounding like an idiot,” and then I’d knock. My advisor’s own advisor is a quite renowned mathematician, and I once asked my advisor what sort of relationship he had with him and he replied, “Oh, I was convinced he thought I was an idiot.” Boy, you can't imagine how much that helped my state of mind.

Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Beware of enterprises requiring new clothes.
I would rather sit on apumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.
H.D. Thoreau

 

[Jovialgent]

"It's not what you look at that matters. It's what you see." Thoreau

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

BUT, MOST OF ALL.... "Yes!!!!" when I asked my wife to marry me.

 

[Aardvark86]

"His ass was so big you couldn't even see the brand of his saddle"

-Pro Cyclist on Greg Lemond, three months prior to Lemond winning the Tour de France, after being shot in the back by his brother-in-law in the preceding off season while hunting

A good motivational reminder that extraordinary things can come from extraordinary work.

Also in the cycling vein:

"Suffer, you swine!"
-Udo Bolts to Jan Ullrich

 

[jim cummings]

It costs to be the boss.

 

[Nitt1300]

It's the ride, not the destination

 

[YYZ86]

"What is a committee? A group of the unwilling picked from the unfit to do the unnecessary." Richard Harkness

In my experience, I have never heard truer words.

 

[anon_xdc8rmuek44eq]

It's only after you've lost everything, that you're free to do anything.

Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

 

[Op2]

It's only after you've lost everything, that you're free to do anything.

Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

That reminds me of a line from the Janis Joplin song "Me and Bobby McGee," which was written by Kris Kristofferson. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

 

[Nitwit]

• The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. ...

 

[N&B4PSU]

My wife once inadvertently stole Stevie Wonder's grocery cart at the Whole Foods.

She blindsided him? Awful... lol

 

[N&B4PSU]

When the going gets tough... the tough get going.

I recall hearing that about every damned time i wanted to sit my candy ass down.

 

[GulfCoastLion]

It’s like déjà vu all over again.