#ladder

All games have morals; and the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the eternal truth that for every ladder you climb, a snake is waiting just around the corner; and for every snake, a ladder will compensate. But it's more than that; no mere carrot-and-stick affair; because implicit in the game is the unchanging twoness of things, the duality of up against down, good against evil; the solid rationality of ladders balances the occult sinuosities of the serpent; in the opposition of staircase and cobra we can see, metaphorically, all conceivable oppositions, Alpha against Omega, father against mother; here is the war of Mary and Musa, and the polarities of knees and nose ... but I found, very early in my life, that the game lacked one crucial dimension, that of ambiguity - because, as events are about to show, it is also possible to slither down a ladder and climb to triumph on the venom of a snake ... ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#life

Our weaponry was not dropped onto our laps one morning. It is not manna from Sinai’s skies. Since Agincourt, the White man has refined & evolved the gunpowder sciences until our modern armies may field muskets by the tens of thousands! Aha!’ you will ask, yes, ‘But why us Aryans? Why not the Unipeds of Ur or the Mandrakes of Mauritius?’ Because, Preacher, of all the world’s races, our love—or rather our rapacity—for treasure, gold, spices & dominion, oh, most of all, sweet dominion, is the keenest, the hungriest, the most unscrupulous! This rapacity yes, powers our Progress; for ends infernal or divine I know not. Nor do you know, sir. Nor do I overly care. I feel only gratitude that my Maker cast me on the winning side. ↗

— David Mitchell

#ladder-of-cvilization #musket #love

Take motherhood: nobody ever thought of putting it on a moral pedestal until some brash feminists pointed out, about a century ago, that the pay is lousy and the career ladder nonexistent. ↗

— Barbara Ehrenreich

#about #ago #brash #career #century

Looking back on those days and little leaguer, the Hall of Fame is not even a blinking star, but through baseball travels and moving up the ladder, that star begins to flicker. ↗

— Wade Boggs

#baseball #begins #days #even #fame

I've had two unlucky injuries that are the equivalent of walking under 1,000 ladders and seeing 1,000 black cats. ↗

— Andrew Bogut

#cats #equivalent #had #i #injuries

I look at decisions like - it's like an Indiana Jones movie. The guy comes to a rope ladder, and he's being chased. There's uncertainty on the other side, but he knows when he gets to the other side, he's going to take his machete and cut the rope ladder behind him. He has no retreat. ↗

— Mark Burnett

#being #chased #comes #cut #decisions

I go around the country and do a simple gag like, 'The property ladder is now a snake' and get a real laugh. ↗

— Jimmy Carr

#country #gag #get #get a real #go

I'm very superstitious... I never shout at magpies, walk under ladders or put my shoes on the table. ↗

— Norman Cook

#ladders #never #put #shoes #shout

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. ↗

— Stephen Covey

#climbing #determines #efficiency #ladder #leadership

Being popular with an audience is a very rickety ladder to be on. ↗