Shawn Wallace > Shawn's Quotes

“I write for the unlearned about things in which I am unlearned myself.”
― C.S. Lewis

“What God asks of men, said [Billy] Graham, is faith. His invisibility is the truest test of that faith. To know who sees him, God makes himself unseen.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
― George Washington

“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.”
― George Washington

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation. ”
― George Washington

“In politics as in philosophy, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.”
― George Washington

“The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion . . . and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself—ultimate cost for perfect value.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

“This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted . . . and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

“I am everyone’s friend,’ I said. ‘Except to my enemies.”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

“money distorts truth like a hippo in a thong.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Failure always brings something valuable with it. I don’t let it leave until I extract that value.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“This was about the time that my opinion of experts, and authority figures in general, began a steady descent that continues to this day.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it. It sounds trivial and obvious, but if you unpack the idea it has extraordinary power.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“If you believe people use reason for the important decisions in life, you will go through life feeling confused and frustrated that others seem to have bad reasoning skills.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“shyness is caused by an internal feeling that you are not worthy to be in the conversation.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“When politicians tell lies, they know the press will call them out. They also know it doesn’t matter. Politicians understand that reason will never have much of a role in voting decisions. A lie that makes a voter feel good is more effective than a hundred rational arguments. That’s even true when the voter knows the lie is a lie.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“You should also try to figure out which people are thing people and which ones are people people.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“In most groups the craziest person is in control. It starts because no one wants the problems that come from pissing off a crazy person. It’s just smarter and easier sometimes to let the crazy person have his or her way.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Do you know what the unemployment rate is for engineers? It is nearly zero. Do you know how many engineers like their jobs? Most of them do, despite what you read in Dilbert comics. And the ones who are unhappy with work can change jobs fairly easily. Generally speaking, the people who have the right kind of education have almost no risk of unemployment.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Good health is a baseline requirement for success.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Just remember to keep your eye out for ways to maximize your schedule freedom in the long term.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“No one wants to believe that the formula for happiness is as simple as daydreaming, controlling your schedule, napping, eating right, and being active every day.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Focus on your diet first and get that right so you have enough energy to want to exercise.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“Happiness is the only useful goal in life. Unless you are a sociopath, your own happiness will depend on being good to others. And happiness tends to happen naturally whenever you have good health, resources, and a flexible schedule.”
― Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

“But Henry wasn’t a parent, and he didn’t understand that when you were, almost nothing was more satisfying than seeing your kid sleep.”
― Neal Stephenson, Seveneves

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“If he lived by a simple code of ethics, it was not an end in itself, but a way to get something done without selling his soul or destroying his reputation. It was a tool to be wielded like a shovel or a stick of dynamite. Tools were for building things; and pride was something you could feel after the fact, when you stood back, looked at what you had built, and passed it on to your children. Dinah”
― Neal Stephenson, Seveneves

“Apparently the part of the brain that identified things as funny kept running as a background process even when its contributions were useless.”
― Neal Stephenson, Seveneves

“These who mistakes are pricey. According to studies we’ve done with our clients, the average hiring mistake costs fifteen times an employee’s base salary in hard costs and productivity loss.”
― Geoff Smart, Who: The A Method for Hiring

“Do not hire anybody who has been pushed out of 20 percent or more of their jobs.”
― Geoff Smart, Who: The A Method for Hiring