Ankit > Ankit's Quotes

“To consort with the crowd is harmful; there is no person who does not make some vice attractive to us, or stamp it upon us, or taint us unconsciously therewith.”
― Seneca, Letters From A Stoic: Epistulae Morales AD Lucilium (Illustrated. Newly revised text. Includes Image Gallery + Audio): All Three Volumes

“Democracy means perfect equality of opportunity, especially in education; not the rotation of every Tom, Dick and Harry in public office.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“And in the individual too, justice is effective coördination, the harmonious functioning of the elements in a man, each in its fit place and each making its coöperative contribution to behavior. Every individual is a cosmos or a chaos of desires, emotions and ideas; let these fall into harmony, and the individual survives and succeeds; let them lose their proper place and function, let emotion try to become the light of action as well as its heat (as in the fanatic), or let thought try to become the heat of action as well as its light (as in the intellectual)—and disintegration of personality begins, failure advances like the inevitable night.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“He does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life,—knowing that under certain conditions it is not worth while to live. He is of a disposition to do men service, though he is ashamed to have a service done to him. To confer a kindness is a mark of superiority; to receive one is a mark of subordination . . . He does not take part in public displays . . . He is open in his dislikes and preferences; he talks and acts frankly, because of his contempt for men and things . . . He is never fired with admiration, since there is nothing great in his eyes. He cannot live in complaisance with others, except it be a friend; complaisance is the characteristic of a slave . . . . He never feels malice, and always forgets and passes over injuries . . . . He is not fond of talking . . . . It is no concern of his that he should be praised, or that others should be blamed. He does not speak evil of others, even of his enemies, unless it be to themselves. His carriage is sedate, his voice deep, his speech measured; he is not given to hurry, for he is concerned about only a few things; he is not prone to vehemence, for he thinks nothing very important. A shrill voice and hasty steps come to a man through care . . . . He bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of his circumstances, like a skilful general who marshals his limited forces with all the strategy of war . . . . He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy, and is afraid of solitude.59”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“Seek not to have things happen as you choose them, but rather choose that they should happen as they do; and you shall live prosperously.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“Spinoza compares the feeling of free will to a stone’s thinking, as it travels through space, that it determines its own trajectory and selects the place and time of its fall.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“To be great is not to be placed above humanity, ruling others; but to stand above the partialities and futilities of uninformed desire, and to rule one’s self.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“The defect of democracy is its tendency to put mediocrity into power; and there is no way of avoiding this except by limiting office to men of “trained skill.”138 Numbers by themselves cannot produce wisdom, and may give the best favors of office to the grossest flatterers.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“The defect of democracy is its tendency to put mediocrity into power; and there is no way of avoiding this except by limiting office to men of “trained skill.”138 Numbers by themselves cannot produce wisdom, and may give the best favors of office to the grossest flatterers. “The fickle disposition of the multitude almost reduces those who have experience of it to despair; for it is governed solely by emotions, and not by reason.”139 Thus democratic government becomes a procession of brief-lived demagogues, and men of worth are loath to enter lists where they must be judged and rated by their inferiors.140”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“As to what the future's uncertain lot has in store, why should I demand of Fortune that she give rather than demand of myself that I should not crave?”
― Seneca, Letters From A Stoic: Epistulae Morales AD Lucilium (Illustrated. Newly revised text. Includes Image Gallery + Audio): All Three Volumes

“This ridiculous foible is perhaps one of our most fatal characteristics; for is there anything more absurd than to wish to carry continually a burden which one can always throw down?”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“If we go back to the beginning,” says Holbach, “we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm or deceit adorned or disfigured them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them; and that custom respects and tyranny supports them in order to make the blindness of men serve its own interests.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“It is only charlatans who are certain. We know nothing of first principles. It is truly extravagant to define God, angels, and minds, and to know precisely why God formed the world, when we do not know why we move our arms at will. Doubt is not a very agreeable state, but certainty is a ridiculous one.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“How much more suffering is caused by the thought of death than by death itself!”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“It is clear that as our walking is admittedly nothing but a constantly-prevented falling, so the life of our bodies is nothing but a constantly-prevented dying, an ever-postponed death.”86”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“for every deliberate death there are thousands of indeliberate births.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“So philosophy purifies the will. But philosophy is to be understood as experience and thought, not as mere reading or passive study.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

“Indeed, the mere exposure effect is actually stronger for stimuli that the individual never consciously sees”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“As expected, the effect of facial competence on voting is about three times larger for information-poor and TV-prone voters than for others who are better informed and watch less television”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“We are far too willing to reject the belief that much of what we see in life is random.”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“Some stereotypes are perniciously wrong, and hostile stereotyping can have dreadful consequences, but the psychological facts cannot be avoided: stereotypes, both correct and false, are how we think of categories.”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“Of course, we and our animal cousins are quickly alerted to signs of opportunities to mate or to feed, and advertisers design billboards accordingly.”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“The sunk-cost fallacy keeps people for too long in poor jobs, unhappy marriages, and unpromising research projects.”
― Daniel Kahneman

“You can’t escape it: when scientists test the water supply of Western countries, they always find it is laced with antidepressants, because so many of us are taking them and excreting them that they simply can’t be filtered out of the water we drink every day. We are literally awash in these drugs.”
― Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions

“When they added up the figures, John and other scientists found that being disconnected from the people around you had the same effect on your health as being obese—which was, until then, considered the biggest health crisis the developed world faced.”
― Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions

“Loneliness, he concluded, is causing a significant amount of the depression and anxiety in our society.”
― Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions

“The vitally important corollary is that evolution shaped us not only to feel bad in isolation, but to feel insecure.” It’s a beautiful theory.”
― Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions

“This showed that loneliness isn’t just some inevitable human sadness, like death. It’s a product of the way we live now.”
― Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions

“She had felt homesick. But she was at home.”
― Johann Hari, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions