#truism

In the unceasing ebb and flow of justice and oppression we must all dig channels as best we may, that at the propitious moment somewhat of the swelling tide may be conducted to the barren places of life. ↗

— Jane Addams

#inspirational #justice #oppression #social-justice #inspirational

Follow the rules until you make them. ↗

— Luke Green

#skills #truisms #writing #life

Lawyers are alright, I guess — but it doesn't appeal to me", I said. "I mean they're alright if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides, even if you did go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guys' lives, or because you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is you wouldn't. ↗

— J.D. Salinger

#holden-caulfield #phonies #the-catcher-in-the-rye #movies

It ain't over 'til it's over. ↗

— Yogi Berra

#sports #truisms #yankees #sports

In 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#colleagues #dismantled #harvard #i #mathematician

Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#among #group #individual #members #mix

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act like lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now. ↗

— Daniel Quinn

#philosophical #truism #death

What does it mean to be the best? It means you have to be better than the number two guy. But what gratification is there in that? He's a loser—that’s why he's number two. ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#best #bizarre #competing #competition #competitor

In brief, egoism in its modern interpretation, is the antithesis, not of altruism, but of idealism. ↗

— John Buchanan Robinson

#antithesis #brief #egoism #idealism #interpretation

The second truism that we must understand is that poverty does not create our social problems, our social problems create our poverty. ↗

— Marco Rubio

#does #must #our #poverty #problems