Open University > Quotes

“Two sources of fuel are particularly important to ensure a healthy and efficiently functioning brain – oxygen and water.”
― The Open University, Introduction to accelerated learning

“Much individual and organisational time can be wasted in sifting through unsuitable applications,”
― Open University, Human resources: recruitment and selection

“descriptive grammars, that is, they set out to account for the language we use without necessarily making judgements about its correctness. However, the word ‘grammar’, as we have seen, can be used to indicate what rules exist for combining units together and whether these have been followed correctly. For example, the variety of English I speak has a rule that if you use a number greater than one with a noun, the noun has to be plural (I say ‘three cats’, not ‘three cat’). Books which set out this view of language are prescriptive grammars which aim to tell people how they should speak rather than to describe how they do speak. Prescriptive grammars contain the notion of the ‘correct’ use of language. For example, many people were taught that an English verb in the infinitive form (underlined in the example below) should not be separated from its preceding to. So the introduction to the TV series Star Trek …to boldly go where no man has gone before is criticised on the grounds that to and go should not be”
― The Open University, English grammar in context

“To try out or test a proposition or ideas in the context of other thinkers and in the light of personal experience and judgement.”
― Open University, Essay and report writing skills

“Are they local enough that they can attend regular meetings, indeed can they be based at desks on my site? If not, have they good electronic links?”
― The Open University, Choosing a human resources consultant

“poor supervision or inadequate job design, the ‘solution’ will be temporary as the new staff themselves will shortly need to be replaced. Thus”
― The Open University, Choosing a human resources consultant

“Self sabotage is alert behavior of how to keep ourselves safe.”
― Open University

“an 8-bit representation.”
― Open University, Computers and computer systems

“Like Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello, she chooses for herself rather than deferring to the wishes of her male relations.”
― Open University, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

“Could people be oppressed in the name of freedom?”
― Open University, Introducing philosophy

“word in Chinese can consist of one character (e.g. 中 zhōng , central), two characters ( 中国 Zhōngguó , China) or three characters ( 中国人 zhōngguórén , Chinese person/people). In Chinese texts, there is no spacing between characters. Traditionally there was no punctuation either, but this has since been adopted. There is no obvious correlation between how characters are written and how they are pronounced. For example, the following three characters, made up of very different strokes, are all pronounced jing , albeit with different tones: 京 (1st tone) means ‘capital’; 井 (3rd tone) means ‘well’ (as in a water well); and 净 (4th tone) means ‘clean’. 1.5 Simplified and traditional forms of Chinese characters In this section you will learn about traditional and simplified characters and work on some activities. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government introduced a range of ‘simplified characters’ ( 简体字 jiăntĭ zì) in an effort to improve the literacy level in the population. About 2,000 characters have been simplified and the rest of the characters remain the same. It is useful to be aware of traditional forms (sometimes”
― Open University, Beginners' Chinese

“initial public offering (IPO)”
― Open University, Equity finance

“Honesty without compassion is brutality. Compassion without honesty is enabling.”
― Open University

“the play, while staging a cross-class marriage, never loses sight of the class differences of the couple and the way this skews traditional gender roles. The Duchess may marry the steward she admires as ‘a complete man’ (1.1.439), but she remains very much an aristocrat. This brings”
― Open University, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

“Positive freedom, in contrast, is a matter of what you can actually do.”
― Open University, Introducing philosophy

“Every next level of your life will demand a different version of you.”
― Open University

“It was only after the defeat of Nazism and collapse of communism that a new, and more hopeful Europe, reappeared as an inclusive concept.”
― Open University, What is Europe?

“The self is a story that we tell ourselves. There is no threshold that makes us greater than the sum of our parts, no inflection point at which we become fully alive. We can’t define consciousness because consciousness does not exist. Humans fancy that there’s something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next. - Westworld”
― Open University

“A GUIDE TO DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
Taoism: Shit happens.
Zen: What is the sound of shit happening?
Hinduism: This shit's happened before.
Buddhism: If shit happens, it isn't really shit.
Islam: If shit happens, it's the will of Allah.
Protestantism: Shit happens because we don't work hard enough.
Catholicism: Shit happens because we are bad.
Christian Fundamentalism: Shit happens because the Bible says so.
Jehovah's Witness: Knock, knock. 'Shit happens."
Judaism: Why does shit always happen to us?
Agnosticism: We don't know shit.
Atheism: No shit.
Hare Krishna: Shit happens - rama rama ding ding.
Rastafarianism: Let's smoke this shit. - Mitchell Symons”
― Open University

“It can be difficult to not take it personally when an abuser or neglecter cannot admit their mistakes, especially if they are people we were close to at one time. But it's not personal. Many abusers simply do not have the egoic strength to face what they have done. Because of whatever traumas they have endured in their own lives, they have never developed the structural foundation necessary to absorb their shame. Without a measure of psychological intactness, it is very difficult for them to acknowledge their fragmented parts. This is not to excuse their behavior, nor to deny its effects, but only to acknowledge that their inability to take responsibility is theirs and theirs alone. It is not something to personalize, to wait for, or to let delay your healing. It's a reflection of their own limitations.”
― Open University

“If you can practice patience in the traffic jam with a sense of humor approach or whatever approach you want to use, you are training for really major difficulties in your life. So, it sounds silly, but actually, it’s true. If you’re sowing seeds of aggression in the traffic jam, then you’re actually perfecting the aggression habit. And if you’re using your sense of humor and your loving-kindness or whatever it is you do, then you’re sowing those kinds of seeds and strengthening those kinds of mental habits; you’re imprinting those kind of things in your unconscious. So, the choice is really ours every time we’re in a traffic jam. - Pema Chodron”
― Open University

“And in the end, we were all just humans, drunk on the idea that love, only love, could heal our brokenness. - Christopher Poindexter”
― Open University

“Developmental psychologists are interested in when and how changes occur in human psychology.”
― Open University, Introduction to child psychology

“hemisphere dominates for speech, writing, mathematical ability, logic and analysis. The right hemisphere dominates for perception, spatial ability, musical and artistic abilities, imagery and dreaming. The right hemisphere also seems to be more emotional and negative compared to the positive and rational left hemisphere.”
― Open University, Starting with psychology

“Repeat it to yourself.
I will heal, softly
And bravely. - Deepali Gupta”
― Open University

“Once you have a reasonably clear idea of what you are looking for and have identified potential consultants, you may need to find out more about them before you can choose. Ideally, you will gather information from as many sources as possible, and, as with any such information, evaluate its reliability and relevance to your particular context. The”
― The Open University, Choosing a human resources consultant

“Perfectionism is one of the major causes of procrastination. Doing it 80 percent right is better than doing 100 percent of nothing. Give up on 'perfect' today. 'Good enough' is good enough!”
― Open University

“Some relationships have to end ugly. It's not the way we want it to be, but sometimes it's the way it has to be. Sometimes there is no possibility of a kind farewell. There is too much water under the bridge, or one or both parties are incapable of resolution, or it's just one of those woundmate connections that is riddled with unfriendly fire. Whatever it is, don't beat yourself up if an ending gets ugly. Don't pile more suffering onto the open wound. Difficult endings are part of life. They just are. Instead, focus your energies on learning what you need to learn so you can manifest something healthier the next time. Our lives don't improve when we expect perfection. They improve when we graduate from the School of Heart Knocks, one lesson after another... after another.”
― Open University

“Unprofessional' transparency creates solidarity, which is dangerous.”
― Open University

“some US firms claim a 45 per cent saving by using the Internet.”
― Open University, Human resources: recruitment and selection