Ask Lemmy

Hope for the best; prepare for the worst.

Being neurodivergent, this is the most efficient way to mentally deal with change (i fucking hate change even though its the only constant in life)

“Give everything you can, but never anything you need.”

I try to live by this. I give away every extra dollar, and help people every chance I get

"The impediment to action advances action. What's in the way becomes the way."

This is basically saying that anything that gets in the way of you solving a problem becomes the new problem to solve.

"The tool works at both ends."

This is about skill building and practice. Making cool stuff improves you as a result.

Something I like about each is that they work in reverse. No impediment in your way? You're probably not going to have very focused forward movement. No need to use tools (literally or metaphorically)? You won't become more skilled.

We must imagine Sisyphus as happy

I won't break it down, plenty of people have done that already. It's one of those sorta zen points that's both almost trivial and very difficult to understand

If idioms count then my favorite is this one:

"I see," said the blind man to his deaf wife over the phone.

My father would always say that to me growing up if i took too long to explain something 😅

“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough”

“Comparison is the thief of joy”

Two of my favorite are from Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well."

"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." (Also attributed as a Native American proverb)

If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

This quote from LBJ centres me. Its been the conservative tactic for literally decades, from African Americans, to lgbtq+, to immigrants; it's always been the same grift:

• Choose your marginalised group-du-jour.
• Convince a whole lot of stupid people that that group is the cause of all their problems.
• Profit.

Its honestly astonishing how blatant it really is.

I've always loved the dichotomy between "I think, therefore I am" versus "To be, is to be perceived". Also, "life is what happens to you while you are making other plans".

And when all wars are done, a butterfly will still be beautiful -Ruskin Bond

Pen is mightier than sword, France is Bacon.

At a certain level of self-awareness, it will inevitably happen regularly that one finds oneself repulsive.

I forget who said it.

"There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?" - Nahum 3:19

I'm not religious by the way

"If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards" -Tommy Boy tagline

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.

• Jean-Luc Picard. In Star trek: The Next Generation s2e21

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.

Nathaniel Borenstein.

I'm going to butcher it, but it's something like: The more you learn the more you realize how little you know.

"This too shall pass"

Attar records the fable of a powerful king who asks assembled wise men to create a ring that will make him happy when he is sad. After deliberation the sages hand him a simple ring with the Persian words "This too shall pass" etched on it, which has the desired effect.

"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken!" - Col. Sanders

I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next  one.

-Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer

We evolve, beyond the person that we were a minute before. Little by little, we advance with each turn. That's how a drill works!

Simon, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

never trust a fart

"The only winning move is not to play."

Following from your post about indecision: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice"

• Be excellent to each other
• If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried
• If at first you do succeed, try to hide your astonishment
• The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

“We don’t care what music you kids love, so long as you have music to love.” From the Hopeless Savages comic

The one that’s keeping me going nowadays is Samwise from The Movie:

Sam: It’s all wrong By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam : That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." - Abraham Lincoln (or honestly a like a dozen different other sources...this one has many different variants).

Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.

Alan Watts

Read it, and I mean really read it. then think about what it is that you inherited that you defend and why you should continue to defend it.

"If you're out to get the honey, then you don't go killin' all the bees" - Joe Strummer

Serenity Prayer:

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

I'm not religious at all, but you can just kinda omit the first 3 words and the meaning is the same.

It's pretty much the basis of Acceptance Commitment Therapy - which is an effective way to manage anxiety and depression.

"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." - Karl Marx, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte"

Great quote. But sometimes I think "twice" was overly optimistic.

Your favourite restaurant will end before you do

"Say what you mean, mean what you say."

With great power comes great responsibility

When in doubt, shut up.

The moto I live my life by is “The day you stop learning is the day you become obsolete.”

The one I wish more people took to heart is, “After everything has been said, and everything has been heard, these three remain: faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love.”

Just love each other, that’s all I’m asking for.

"know thyself"

Plato? I think it's Plato idk

• I know that I know nothing.
• Perfection is killing you.
• A book a day keeps the haters away (ok, I made this one up. Still, quite a good advice and a real fine way to spend one's time)

"To strike another blow for freedom allows a man to walk a little taller and hold his head a little higher. And while he can, he must." - William J Brennan, former justice of the US Supreme Court. I keep it taped to my door to remind me why I'm here.