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December 31, 2021 - January 1, 2022
People are much less interested in what you are trying to show them than in what you are trying to hide.
If you know, in the morning, what your day looks like with any precision, you are a little bit dead—the more precision, the more dead you are.
It is harder to say no when you really mean it than when you don’t.
Never say no twice if you mean it.
Most of what they call humility is successfully disguised arrogance.
The main reason to go to school is to learn how not to think like a professor.
The opposite of manliness isn’t cowardice; it’s technology.
Usually, what we call a “good listener” is someone with skillfully polished indifference.
Most people fear being without audiovisual stimulation because they are too repetitive when they think and imagine things on their own.
For life to be really fun, what you fear should line up with what you desire.
The book is the only medium left that hasn’t been corrupted by the profane: everything else on your eyelids manipulates you with an ad.
“Wealthy” is meaningless and has no robust absolute measure; use instead the subtractive measure “unwealth,” that is, the difference, at any point in time, between what you have and what you would like to have.
Karl Marx, a visionary, figured out that you can control a slave much better by convincing him he is an employee.
The fastest way to become rich is to socialize with the poor; the fastest way to become poor is to socialize with the rich.
You will be civilized on the day you can spend a long period doing nothing, learning nothing, and improving nothing, without feeling the slightest amount of guilt.
The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today’s employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss.
You can tell how uninteresting a person is by asking him whom he finds interesting.
For so many, instead of looking for “cause of death” when they expire, we should be looking for “cause of life” when they are still around.
Failure of second-order thinking: he tells you a secret and somehow expects you to keep it, when he just gave you evidence that he can’t keep it himself.
Fasting: every human should learn to read, write, respect the weak, take risks in voicing disrespect for the powerful when warranted, and fast.
The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.
When I look at people on treadmills I wonder how alpha lions, the strongest, expend the least amount of energy, sleeping twenty hours a day; others hunt for them. Caesar pontem fecit.*
What I learned on my own I still remember.
Regular minds find similarities in stories (and situations); finer minds detect differences.
Most people need to wait for another person to say “this is beautiful art” to say “this is beautiful art”; some need to wait for two or more.
People reveal much more about themselves while lying than when they tell the truth.
Another marker for charlatans: they don’t voice opinions that can get them in trouble.
Weak men act to satisfy their needs, stronger men their duties.
A prostitute who sells her body (temporarily) is vastly more honorable than someone who sells his opinion for promotion or job tenure.
Just as dyed hair makes older men less attractive, it is what you do to hide your weaknesses that makes them repugnant.
I find it inconsistent (and corrupt) to dislike big government while favoring big business—but (alas) not the reverse.
To become a philosopher, start by walking very slowly.
For the classics, philosophical insight was the product of a life of leisure; for us, a life of leisure can be the product of philosophical insight.
The difference between banks and the Mafia: banks have better legal-regulatory expertise, but the Mafia understands public opinion.
It is a sign of weakness to avoid showing signs of weakness.
The first, and hardest, step to wisdom: avert the standard assumption that people know what they want.
You are free in inverse proportion to the number of people to whom you can’t say “fuck you.” But you are honorable in proportion to the number of people to whom you can say “fuck you” with impunity but don’t.
You know you have influence when people start noticing your absence more than the presence of others.
We expect places and products to be less attractive than in marketing brochures, but we never forgive humans for being worse than their first impressions.
If my detractors knew me better they would hate me even more.
