Aphorisms
Personal Observations
- A friend who does not communicate constantly is an imaginary friend.
- All people are capable of great things, most fail to accomplish small things.
- People are hypocrites until proven otherwise.
- People who explicitly state they seek deep conversations are often not capable of initiating or maintaining them.
- Don't try to please people, they sure won't try to please you.
- Be kind to those who are kind and those who are unkind, for the unkind are those who need it most.
- People will always find an excuse to hate you to breach their moral agreements with themselves.
- Don't worry about doing stupid things, great people always do plenty of stupid things.
- A choice where it is easy to choose one side is not a choice at all.
- Do not confuse possibility with necessity. People often desire the option to do something they would never normally do.
- Similarly, those who typically confuse possibility with necessity are often people with no self control.
- People who ask you to question authority typically require that you question other authorities than the ones they admire.
- Similarly, people who preach tolerance are frequently very intolerant.
- Generally, moral values held by a person are genuine if the person is capable of applying them to those who don't hold them.
- Never assume what people say they want is what they actually want. Most people are incapable of articulating their thoughts.
- However, people are responsible for what they say and do, not what they think they have said and done.
- Try to comment and criticize what someone has said and done, not what someone is.
- People often want the freedom but not the responsibility.
- You cannot be an online activist if you dismiss people. Telling people that already know while avoiding those who disagree does not raise awareness.
- It is in those moments where it feels the most burdensome to do something, that your integrity matters. Everyone is honest if they are never offered a bribe.
- Every shortcut you take when learning has a long-term price.
Selected Quotes/Aphorisms
Everyone who enjoys thinks that the principal thing to the tree is the fruit, but in point of fact the principal thing to it is the seed. -- Herein lies the difference between them that create and them that enjoy.
- F. Nietzsche
Many claim they wish to destroy their enemies. If this were true, most would be compelled to destroy themselves.
- Abbess Helena the Virtuous (Ben Counter, Dark Adeptus)
And he who is not a bird should not camp above abysses.
- F. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
He is good to those who are good; He is also good to those who are not good, Thereby he is good.
- Lao Tse, Tao Te Ching
One has only seen little of life, if one hasn't also seen the hand that mercifully — kills.
- F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
I love him who is ashamed when the dice fall in his favour, and who then asketh: “Am I a dishonest player?"
- F. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; the beasts, by nature.
- Cicero
O Voltaire! O humaneness! O nonsense! There is something about "truth", about the search for truth; and when a human being is too human about it- "il ne cherche le vrai que pour faire le bien"- I bet he finds nothing.
- F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
In ancient times, those who governed well did not arm, and those who were armed well did not set up battle lines. Those who set up battle lines well did not fight, those who fought well did not lose, and those who lost well did not perish.
- Zhuge Liang (Kongming), The Way of the General
Confucius said that an enlightened ruler does not worry about people not knowing him, he worries about not knowing people. He worries not about outsiders not knowing insiders, but about insiders not knowing outsiders. He worries not about subordinates not knowing superiors, but about superiors not knowing subordinates. He worries not about the lower classes not knowing the upper classes, but about the upper classes not knowing the lower classes.
- Zhuge Liang (Kongming), The Way of the General
It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong. And whoever attempts it, even with the best right, but without being obliged to do so, proves that he is probably not only strong, but also daring beyond measure. He enters into a labyrinth, he multiplies a thousandfold the dangers which life in itself already brings with it; not the least of which is that no one can see how and where he loses his way, becomes isolated, and is torn piecemeal by some minotaur of conscience. Supposing such a one comes to grief, it is so far from the comprehension of men that they neither feel it, nor sympathize with it. And he cannot any longer go back! He cannot even go back again to the sympathy of men!
- F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Free, dost thou call thyself? Thy ruling thought would I hear of, and not that thou hast escaped from a yoke.
Art thou one entitled to escape from a yoke? Many a one hath cast away his final worth when he hath cast away his servitude.
Free from what? What doth that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall thine eye show unto me: free for what?
- F. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
He who knoweth the reader, doeth nothing more for the reader. Another century of readers—and spirit itself will stink.
Every one being allowed to learn to read, ruineth in the long run not only writing but also thinking.
Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it even becometh populace.
He that writeth in blood and proverbs doth not want to be read, but learnt by heart.
- F. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
The Author: Classification of fantasy and reality is itself a fantasy that humans created, my dear motorad. Life.,. it begins when you first make distinction between yourself and others. From that moment on, the world becomes a stage for the story in wich you are the main character. All people live in a fantasy in which they are the main character. But the world doesn't recognize you as the main character at all. What nonsense! Everyone lives their entire life tormented by this confusion! There's only one way out of this hell.
Kino: To place yourself in a position that is neither the main character nor a supporting role. In other words...
The Author: Yes, The "Author"
Hermes: He [the Author] seems crazy.
Kino: Normal people don't become authors to begin with, Hermes.
- Keiichi Sigsawa, Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World