What's a quote that has stuck with you for your whole life?
I always loved browsing such posts on reddit, so thought I should make one on lemmy too
Edit: Usually these kind of posts only used to have excerpts from books or ancient proverbs, but now I am seeing a lot more quotes from shows/movies/games are also resonating with people. It’s pretty cool to see.
Classic gojo with pumice. Was like washing your hands with sharp wet gravel. Pretty sure it just removes the top layer of skin more than it cleans anything. Can’t be dirty if it’s gone.
“You’re not here to make a choice, you’ve already made it. You’re here to try and understand why you made it.”
-The Oracle.
To this day it’s the way I don’t worry about determinism and free will. It doesn’t matter if I truly was the one who made a choice or not—if it was predestined—I’m supposed to learn about why I made that choice.
The way I think about this is somewhat novel I think.
Suppose we have two universes, everything the same, except one has free will and one doesn’t. Would an observer be able to tell them apart? I don’t think so. Maybe I just lack imagination, but I don’t see how free will would actually make a difference.
Your decisions determine what kind of person you are and what kind of person you are determines what decisions you make. They are self reinforcing and tied up together in a big path dependant knot.
Wanting to be a better person also only works if you let it change your decisions, bringing you one step closer to being a better person.
I think that only holds true if we stop making choices.
As far as free will is concerned, the multiverse theory has some great implications for that. Still no answers, but rationales that there are other “yous” out there living ever single possibility.
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
-Thomas Paine
People uphold their own oppressors because of a need to uphold tradition. F**k the monarchy.
I took an introduction to nursing class in high school where we had to know the names of all the bones, the chambers of the heart, CPR, etc. During one particular topic, one of the students kinda snapped and exclaimed “I’m too stupid for this!” The teacher, a badass ER nurse who was a single mom, rode a Harley, and had seen everything from electrocuted flesh to years-old bed sores, simply said “Good. That means you’re learning.”
I work with special needs kids, and whenever they complain about feeling stupid, I pass along that wisdom, but in a bit nicer way: “You’re not stupid, you’re just learning.”
“A journey will have pain and failure. It is not only the steps forward that we must accept. It is the stumbles. The trials. The knowledge that we will fail. That we will hurt those around us.
But if we stop, if we accept the person we are when we fail, the journey ends. That failure becomes our destination.”
“Many that live deserve death and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be so eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wise cannot see all ends.” Gandalf, Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring
For some reason, this quote (and the entirety of Gollum’s story) has stuck itself in my head. I guess I interpret this as a message to not be so quick to judge death upon another person, no matter what they had done. You never know what their future will be like, and cutting their lives off would mean losing out on the potential benefits that their future might bring. Even bad people can contribute good things. I know that this is just my personal opinion, and a lot of people probably won’t agree with this, but this is the lesson that I got from Gollum’s story.
Also check out the book “seeing like a state” if you want a whole book version of that quote, including examples in forestry, city design and education.
Oh this is a great one. I was once in a job, where we were introduced to a new system that was designed to count successes. The problem was, that it was a job where we worked with people and everything we did couldn’t be quantified. The new system only put value on what could be counted so 80% of our work became invisible and “worthless”. Great times.
In the (very good) video game pillars of eternity 2, an imp comes to tell you his wizard wants you to see him. If you respond with “I’ll go if I have time” the imp replies “pfth. Who has time? You have to make time”. Now I think about this a lot.
I’ve also learned that sometimes when people say they don’t have time they actually mean they don’t want to, but they think a small lie is more polite. Personally if I invite you to something I’d rather you tell me you’re not interested so I know not to invite you in the future. But some people are cripplingly conflict avoidant.
Love this! So many of the “no time” people act like victims when it’s their own choice! No one told you to commit yourself to all those things. And if you can’t make time, it’s not a priority then.
I’ve felt this way for a long time. Now I’ve got 2 toddlers and the hours of 6a-9p are completely consumed with children or work. I don’t know how to make time anymore
With all of the time I have, I am an insult to the dead.
In context, the person is saying they feel like they are wasting their life and that innumerable people in the past would’ve killed to have the kind of free time or life they have.
It reminds me to be grateful for both the time I have alive and the quality of that time.
I find it extremely motivating in pursuing my various personal pursuits. I should seem like a Renaissance master to the people of the past and anything less is insulting.
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