#makin

The inconsistencies that haunt our relationships with animals also result from the quirks of human cognition. We like to think of ourselves as the rational species. But research in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics shows that our thinking and behavior are often completely illogical. In one study, for example, groups of people were independently asked how much they would give to prevent waterfowl from being killed in polluted oil ponds. On average, the subjects said they would pay $80 to save 2,000 birds, $78 to save 20,000 birds, and $88 to save 200,000 birds. Sometimes animals act more logically than people do; a recent study found that when picking a new home, the decisions of ant colonies were more rational than those of human house-hunters. What is it about human psychology that makes it so difficult for us to think consistently about animals? The paradoxes that plague our interactions with other species are due to the fact that much of our thinking is a mire of instinct, learning, language, culture, intuition, and our reliance on mental shortcuts. ↗

— Hal Herzog

#behavior #charity #cognition #decision-making #ethics

You can't make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen. ↗

— Michelle Obama

#decisions #fear #decisions

No rules exist, and examples are simply life-savers answering the appeals of rules making vain attempts to exist. ↗

— Andre Breton

#appeals #attempts #examples #exist #making

I had nearly finished school because I was making effort not that bad on that. But there was a law in Germany after the war. You could not make your final examination before 18, so lots of people who were late because of the way had to do it first. ↗

— Karl Lagerfeld

#bad #because #before #could #effort

Work is making a living out of being bored. ↗

— Karl Lagerfeld

#bored #living #making #making a living #out

It was a long time in the making, my divorce. One day became less special than the next, and pretty soon, we ceased all conversation. It is a sad day when you have nothing left to say. ↗

— Ricki Lake

#ceased #conversation #day #divorce #left

Whether I'm making a recipe or a piece of jewelry or a white-rose-and-jasmine tea or the perfume, I like to think of myself as a happy little sorceress, and if I could just have a little general store with all that stuff and give people a sense of my taste, that would be lovely. ↗

— Padma Lakshmi

#general #give #happy #i #if i could

Of course, the whole Andy Kaufman angle was classic. I'm real proud of that. I mean that is something people are still talking about 20 years later, making movies about and that sort of thing. I mean not a day goes by that someone doesn't mention Andy Kaufman to me. ↗

— Jerry Lawler

#andy #angle #classic #course #day

I was not interested in irony; I wanted to emphasize the primacy of the idea in making art. ↗

— Sol LeWitt

#emphasize #i #idea #interested #irony

But when one identifies the Church with a cultural and political bloc, there is the danger of making difficult the Church's contact with all those outside the bloc. ↗

— Karl Lehmann

#church #contact #cultural #danger #difficult