J > J's Quotes

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play

“Robin’s mind was spinning with claret, or else he wouldn’t have managed what he said next. ‘Why won’t you dance with Letty?’ ‘I’m not looking to start a row.’ ‘No, really.’ ‘Please, Birdie.’ Ramy sighed. ‘You know how it is.’ ‘She wants you,’ Robin said. He’d only just realized this, and now that he said it out loud, it seemed so obvious that he felt stupid for not seeing it earlier. ‘Very badly. So why—’ ‘Don’t you know why?’ Their eyes met. Robin felt a prickle at the back of his neck. The space between them felt very charged, like the moment between lightning and thunder, and Robin had no idea what was going on or what would happen next, only that it all felt very strange and terrifying, like teetering over the edge of a windy, roaring cliff.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“The poet is free to say whatever he likes, you see – he can choose from any number of linguistic tricks in the language he’s composing in. Word choice, word order, sound – they all matter, and without any one of them the whole thing falls apart. […] So the translator needs to be translator, literary critic, and poet all at once – he must read the original well enough to understand all the machinery at play, to convey its meaning with as much accuracy as possible, then rearrange the translated meaning into an aesthetically pleasing structure in the target language that, by his judgment, matches the original. The poet runs untrammelled across the meadow. The translator dances in shackles.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Whoever said the soul and the body met in the pineal gland was a fool. It's the asshole, stupid.”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“It is an amazing gift to be able to recognize that the things that make you the happiest are so much easier to grasp than you thought. There is such freedom in being able to celebrate and appreciate the unique moments that recharge you and give you peace and joy. Sure, some people want red carpets and paparazzi. Turns out I just want banana Popsicles dipped in Malibu rum. It doesn't mean I'm a failure at appreciating the good things in life. It means I'm successful in recognizing what the good things in life are for m”
― Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

“There will be moments when you have to be a grown-up. Those moments are tricks. Do not fall for them.”
― Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

“often it’s not the unknown that scares us, it’s that we think we know what’s going to happen—and that it’s going to be bad. But the truth is, we really don’t know.”
― Dan Harris, 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story

“There is something very wrong with what we have made ourselves. We have become a civilization based on work—not even “productive work” but work as an end and meaning in itself. We have come to believe that men and women who do not work harder than they wish at jobs they do not particularly enjoy are bad people unworthy of love, care, or assistance from their communities. It is as if we have collectively acquiesced to our own enslavement.”
― David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

“Everyday we wake up and collectively make a world together; but which one of us, left to our own devices, would ever decide they wanted to make a world like this one?”
― David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

“Yet for some reason, we as a society have
collectively decided it’s better to have millions of human beings spending years of
their lives pretending to type into spreadsheets or preparing mind maps for PR meetings than freeing them to knit sweaters, play with their dogs, start a garage band, experiment with new recipes, or sit in cafés arguing about politics, and gossiping about their friends’ complex polyamorous love affairs.”
― David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

“This history made it very easy to encourage workers to see their work not so much as wealth-creation, or helping others, or at least not primarily so, but as self-abnegation, a kind of secular hair-shirt, a sacrifice of joy and pleasure that allows us to become an adult worthy of our consumerist toys.”
― David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

“The main political reaction to our awareness that half the time we are engaged in utterly meaningless or even counterproductive activities—usually under the orders of a person we dislike—is to rankle with resentment over the fact there might be others out there who are not in the same trap. As a result, hatred, resentment, and suspicion have become the glue that holds society together. This is a disastrous state of affairs. I wish it to end.”
― David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

“I said, "Sometimes people do things to you that you can't do anything about. You just have to survive it and go on.”
― Martha Wells, Artificial Condition

“AI will not solve poverty, because the conditions that lead to societies that pursue profit over people are not technical. AI will not solve discrimination, because the cultural patterns that say one group of people is better than another because of their gender, their skin color, the way they speak, their height, or their wealth are not technical. AI will not solve climate change, because the political and economic choices that exploit the earth’s resources are not technical matters. As tempting as it may be, we cannot use AI to sidestep the hard work of organizing society so that where you are born, the resources of your community, and the labels placed upon you are not the primary determinants of your destiny. We cannot use AI to sidestep conversations about patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, or who holds power and who doesn’t. As Dr. Rumman Chowdhury reminds us in her work on AI accountability, the moral outsourcing of hard decisions to machines does not solve the underlying social dilemmas.”
― Joy Buolamwini, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines

“We meet at school, or work, or maybe a store. Wherever it is, there’s just a random group of individuals, right? Within that group, you find your mate. If you were in a different group, you’d end up with a different mate, right? But we never dwell on that. We live our lives in the groups we have—in our cities, our countries, even though we didn’t choose them. Know what I mean? We like to tell ourselves it’s love, that we’re choosing our own partners. But in reality, we’re just playing the cards we’ve been dealt.”
― Hiroko Oyamada, Weasels in the Attic

“Because you believe everyone’s against you, you force everyone to be against you.”
― Philip K. Dick, Time Out Of Joint

“Red flags look like confetti when you’re falling for someone.”
― Zach Zimmerman, Is It Hot in Here? Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth?

“Turns out the secret to salvation from Hell is to stop believing in it.”
― Zach Zimmerman, Is It Hot in Here? Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth?

“But I’m not Dad’s therapist. I’m his child, and I still want an “I’m sorry.” An apology for why I imagine burning in Hell on turbulent flights, after I jerk off, and after naps. For why I have a hole in me so large only Christianity can fill it. For why my journey to find myself has been polluted with the poison of eternal doubt.”
― Zach Zimmerman, Is It Hot in Here? Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth?

“The gap between who I am and who I think I might become is never larger than when I’m packing.”
― Zach Zimmerman, Is It Hot in Here? Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth?

“I’ve been working on something pretty big for a while, a legacy project really,” he told me. “What can you say about it?” “It’s a custom torture device.” He moved his piece. “King me.” I kinged him. “It analyzes your life, everything that ever happened, and creates a perfect form of torture that’s suited only to you.” “What’s mine?” I asked without thinking. His face sank. “Why would you want to know?” “I’m just kidding. Well, I mean, just curious.” “Do you have a guess?” he asked with a grin. “Maybe moving back in with my parents?” “That would be the worst thing?” “I suppose not. Maybe having my heart broken repeatedly? Solitary confinement?” “If you really want to know …” I nodded. He put down the checker piece in his hand. “Everything you’ve been through was part of it. Your parents, your ex, your jobs, your friends, every hell you’ve been through, and every hell you’ve created in your mind.” “But I found the meaning in all of that,” I countered. “I learned the lesson. I grew.” Satan smiled and jumped my last piece. “That’s the torture, Zach. Making you search for meaning where there is none.”
― Zach Zimmerman, Is It Hot in Here? Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth?

“Bi women are nearly twice as likely as straight women to experience sexual and physical assault. Bi women also have much higher rates of drug addiction and abuse. Not to mention that lesbians are really mean to bi women. At least gay men still hang out with bi men. Yes, they’ll talk shit behind our backs, about how we’re in denial, but they’re not as blatantly antagonistic as lesbians who make bi women feel like gender traitors for breaking up with a woman and dating a man.”
― Zachary Zane, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto

“Recently, many Western cultures have made progress accepting nonbinary and trans folks (with some obvious major setbacks). I’ve noticed that this acceptance often comes from a reinforcement of gender, which I find worrisome. You should be able to be a man who wears dresses and lipstick and still be a man. Clothing is genderless. Makeup is genderless. So, too, is painting one’s nails. While you can (and should) absolutely identify as nonbinary if the identity speaks to you, you can also be an “effeminate” man and still be just that, a man—and a straight man at that! Everything that falls outside the super narrow confines of “masculinity” isn’t automatically queer. I think if we allowed men to be more “effeminate” without quickly labeling them as queer, we’d have significantly less homophobia/ queerphobia.”
― Zachary Zane, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto

“There’s a reason the phrase “no homo” made its way into our vernacular—outside of very blatant homophobia. Straight men felt the need to distance themselves from anything that could be considered “gay” because they were teased, bullied, and harassed for something as innocuous as hugging another male friend.* Since straight men wanted to be able to hug their friends without being ridiculed, they started saying “no homo” after doing anything that they thought made them less of a man. “No homo” probably wouldn’t have become as pervasive a saying if straight men were allowed to act in manners that are traditionally thought of as being more feminine.”
― Zachary Zane, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto

“By this definition, vanilla sex is actually abnormal because you’re in a minority if you’re not fantasizing or acting out something kinky. This makes being vanilla one of the kinkiest kinks of them all! So if someone ever tries to vanilla-shame you, just tell them you’re not a basic bitch who’s into BDSM like everyone else.”
― Zachary Zane, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto

“In my experience, when you are ashamed of something, others will shame you. When you’re embarrassed by something, others will pity you. If you present something as problematic or deviant, you will be treated as a troubled freak. That’s why you need to own your kinks. When you talk about how you like being led on a leash and called a “good boy,” say it the same way you would tell a server, “I’d like an omelet with feta, asparagus, and shrimp.” Both are things you like. It’s that simple. You don’t preface a server with “I know that’s a bizarre combo of things to put in an omelet, but . . .” You just say what you fucking want.”
― Zachary Zane, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto

“Let us not forget that the stigma surrounding STIs is designed. It’s designed to keep you from having sex. It’s designed to make you feel shame for something completely normal and healthy.”
― Zachary Zane, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto

“A similar danger now confronts some critics of the identity trap. Its opponents are united by what they oppose, not by what they endorse. This creates a temptation to outsource their moral judgments to their opponents. Instead of militating for a positive vision of the future, these critics of the identity trap have started to rail against anything that somehow seems “woke.” In other words, they have become guilty of what, drawing on an idea by Emily Yoffe, I once called 180ism: “the tendency of many participants in public debate to hear what their perceived enemies have to say and immediately declare themselves diametrically opposed.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time

“And by portraying society as being full of bigots who pose a constant threat to members of every conceivable minority group, they encourage more and more people to feel adrift in a relentlessly hostile world.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time

“I think it’s important to remind yourself that you have a top-shelf bussy. Your hips do not lie. And you can, and have, sucked the soul out of someone’s dick. As I write this, he aimlessly roams the streets, a shell of a man, searching for someone who can suck dick like you. I want you to focus on that man’s life you destroyed by being too damn good at head. That’s the internal validation I’m talking about!”
― Zachary Zane, Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto