Gregus > Gregus's Quotes

“We suffer not from the events in our lives but from our judgement about them.”
― Epictetus

“You can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then, when you have the chance to do it better, refuse to go near it.”
― Václav Havel

“The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world. In other words, I can only recommend perspective and distance.”
― Václav Havel

“In any case, ideals are something we strive for; they are somewhere on the horizon of our efforts; they provide meaning and direction; they are not, however, static quotas that we either fulfill or do not.”
― Vaclav Havel

“Learning to fail well means learning to understand your mistakes, because unless you know what went wrong, you may do the wrong things to correct it.”
― Megan McArdle, The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success

“What Paul says about Peter tells us more about Paul than about Peter”
― Baruch Spinoza

“in the Israeli military, the tactical innovation came from the bottom up—from individual tank commanders and their officers. It probably never occurred to these soldiers that they should ask their higher-ups to solve the problem, or that they might not have the authority to act on their own. Nor did they see anything strange in their taking responsibility for inventing, adopting, and disseminating new tactics in real time, on the fly.”
― Dan Senor, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

“Four guys are standing on a street corner… an American, a Russian, a Chinese man, and an Israeli…. A reporter comes up to the group and says to them: “Excuse me…. What’s your opinion on the meat shortage?” The American says: What’s a shortage? The Russian says: What’s meat? The Chinese man says: What’s an opinion? The Israeli says: What’s “Excuse me”? —MIKE LEIGH, Two Thousand Years”
― Senor, Dan, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”
― Gary Provost

“Disagreement is not oppression. Argument is not assault. Words – even provocative or repugnant ones – are not violence. The answer to speech we do not like is more speech.”
― Douglas Murray, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity