Ali > Ali's Quotes

“THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”
― Isaac Asimov, The Last Question

“The people who must never have power are the humorless. To impossible certainties of rectitude they ally tedium and uniformity.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Arguably: Selected Essays

“I don't think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see.”
― José Saramago, Blindness

“Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.”
― José Saramago, Blindness

“Sections in the bookstore

- Books You Haven't Read
- Books You Needn't Read
- Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading
- Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books Read Before Being Written
- Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered
- Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First
- Books Too Expensive Now and You'll Wait 'Til They're Remaindered
- Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback
- Books You Can Borrow from Somebody
- Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too
- Books You've Been Planning to Read for Ages
- Books You've Been Hunting for Years Without Success
- Books Dealing with Something You're Working on at the Moment
- Books You Want to Own So They'll Be Handy Just in Case
- Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer
- Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves
- Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified
- Books Read Long Ago Which It's Now Time to Re-read
- Books You've Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It's Time to Sit Down and Really Read Them”
― Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

“[Dean] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”

[Roark] “That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

“Of all that is written, I love only what a person hath written with his blood. Write with blood, and thou wilt find that blood is spirit.
It is no easy task to understand unfamiliar blood; I hate the reading idlers.
He who knoweth the reader, doeth nothing more for the reader. Another century of readers--and spirit itself will stink.
Every one being allowed to learn to read, ruineth in the long run not only writing but also thinking.
Once spirit was God, then it became man, and now it even becometh populace.
He that writeth in blood and proverbs doth not want to be read, but learnt by heart.
In the mountains the shortest way is from peak to peak, but for that route thou must have long legs. Proverbs should be peaks, and those spoken to should be big and tall.
The atmosphere rare and pure, danger near and the spirit full of a joyful wickedness: thus are things well matched.
I want to have goblins about me, for I am courageous. The courage which scareth away ghosts, createth for itself goblins--it wanteth to laugh.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

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

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

“What appears to be black on white to whites may appear to be all white to black.”
― Russell Ackoff

“Our ability to solve problem is limited by our conception of what is feasible.”
― Russell L. Ackoff, The Art of Problem Solving: Accompanied by Ackoff's Fables

“If you meet a number of failures the causes of which are not known, look for something that is common for each failure and that is never present when there is a success.”
― Jon Stuart Mill

“Nothing consumes time like nothing.”
― Russell Ackoff

“The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in.”
― Henry Green

“Do not get attatched to the world as it is. Because the world is changing something new is coming.”
― Jerry Weintraub, When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man

“This much I knew As soon as you feel comfortable that's when It's time to start over.”
― Jerry Weintraub, When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man

“Freedom is saying I want to do this Not that”
― Jerry Weintraub, When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man

“You can't "un-recgonize" something”
― Jerry Weintraub, When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey

“Morality, it could be argued, represents the way that people would like the world to work, wheareas economics represents how it actually does work.”
― Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

“The end goal of every growth hacker is to build a self-perpetuating marketing machine that reaches millions by itself.”
― Ryan Holiday, Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising

“New ideas emerge when you question the assumptions upon which a problem is based”
― Shane Snow, Smartcuts: The Breakthrough Power of Lateral Thinking

“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.

A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.

A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master...”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.”
― Shane Snow, Smartcuts: The Breakthrough Power of Lateral Thinking

“When intelligent people read, they ask themselves a simple question: What do I plan to do with this information?”
― Ryan Holiday, Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

“Conning the conmen is one of life’s most satisfying pleasures.”
― Ryan Holiday, Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

“There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.”
― Nietzsche, Friedrich, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“در اولین روز سال تحصیلی، دانشجویان نوپای رشته معماری، کاغذ و قلم به دست، آمده بودند تا به عادت دیرینه و نهادینه، درس معماری را گوش کنند و جزوه ها بردارند.
بی مقدمه از آن ها خواستم که با کاغذهای خود موشک بسازند. دیدنی تر از چهره دانشجویان، چهره والدین بعضی از آنها بود که در انتهای کارگاه ایستاده بودند تا شاهد افزونی بار علم و دانش فرزدانشان شوند.
زمانی سپری شد تا دانشجویان دریافتند که اشتباهی در کار نیست و باید موشک بسازند موشک ها یک به یک ساخته شد و چهره ها یک با یک شکفتهشد و شور و نشاط جایگزین دلواپسی و نگرانی روز اول مدرسه گردید.
نیمی از وقت کارگاه به موشک سازی و موشک بازی گذشت. آن گاه از دانشجویان خواستم که موشک های خود را روی یک میز و کاغذهای سفید خود را روی میز دیگر بگذارند.
یکی از آن ها را دعوت کردم تا موشک خود را از میان سایر موشک ها پیدا کند؛ گشت و پیدا کرد. از او خواستم تا کاغذ سفید خود را نیز از میان سایر کاغذها پیدا کند؛ گشت و پیدا نکرد… همه ی کاغذها مثل هم بودند!
حالا دانشجویان اولین درس معماری را فراگرفته بودند : معماری دمیدن ارزشی ست در ماده.”
― عیسی حجت

“Nobody said not to go.”
― Emily Hahn