The World Motivation
If you've got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn't prove it.
“Women talk when they want to. Or don't.”
“A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom.”
“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”
“Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.”
“Don't explain computers to laymen. Simpler to explain sex to a virgin.”
“But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”
“¿A qué se reduce, pues, el progreso? Progresa la ciencia, progresa la técnica. El hombre de nuestros días maneja técnicas cuyos fundamentos ignora, pero cuyos resultados aprovecha. La pseudo-doctrina del progreso diviniza el futuro y espera el advenimiento de un estado perfecto. En una época que no se precisa, la historia universal de la humanidad habrá resuelto todos sus problemas. Lo que cuenta es el hombre futuro. Las generaciones presentes son simples eslabones sin ninguna finalidad propia. El presente se evapora en aras de un progresismo inocente y filisteo.”
“Truth is not as pompous and romantic as myth ... but it has the immeasurable value of being the Truth.”
“let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.”
“I cannot encourage any fabrication even for the sake of making people feel good. If I were to fabricate consciously and knowingly, I would not only be ordaining myself their enemy, but also ordaining myself God's enemy.”
“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.”
“40. The gods either have power or they have not. If they have not, why pray to them? If they have, then instead of praying to be granted or spared such-and-such a thing, why not rather pray to be delivered from dreading it, or lusting for it, or grieving over it? Clearly, if they can help a man at all, they can help him in this way. You will say, perhaps, ‘But all that is something they have put in my own power.’ Then surely it were better to use your power and be a free man, than to hanker like a slave and a beggar for something that is not in your power. Besides, who told you the gods never lend their aid even towards things that do lie in our own power? Begin praying in this way, and you will see. Where another man prays ‘Grant that I may possess this woman,’ let your own prayer be, ‘Grant that I may not lust to possess her.’ Where he prays, ‘Grant me to be rid of such-and-such a one,’ you pray, ‘Take from me my desire to be rid of him.’ Where he begs, ‘Spare me the loss of my precious child,’ beg rather to be delivered from the terror of losing him. In short, give your petitions a turn in this direction, and see what comes.”