In a zero-sum world, one with no or very little growth, democracy can become antagonistic as people seek to vote money away from each other. What follows from that antagonism is distrust and polarization. In a high-growth world the dogfights can be far fewer, because it’s much easier for everyone to win.
~ Sam Altman
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How can you face the world if all you can say about yourself is that you’re hungry. If you can’t think of anything else.
~ Herta Müller
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Queen Elizabeth II was formal, interested, uncomplaining, and always respectful. Her warehouse’s worth of matching coats and whimsical hats were an aspect of that respect. It didn’t matter if she had arrived for a tour of your rat-extermination business in Manchester; she was dressed as if attending a new exhibit at the National Gallery.
~ Caitlin Flanagan via The Atlantic
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Logic may indeed be unshakeable, but it cannot withstand a man who is determined to live.
~ Franz Kafka
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Sexual desire encompasses desires for power, belonging, advantage and disruption that we would not typically think of as erotic.
~ Alexandra Kleeman via The New York Times
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If we exiled our sins, our virtues would get lonely without their old sparring partners.
~ Henry S. Haskins
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It was one of those nights when the sky came down and wrapped itself around the world. The rain clawed at the windows of the bar like an angry cat and tried to sneak in every time some drunk lurched in the door. The place reeked of stale beer and soggy men with enough cheap perfume thrown in to make you sick.
~ Mickey Spillane via The Big Kill (1951)
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Whenever men are not obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition; which is so powerful in human breasts, that it never leaves them no matter to what rank they rise.
~ Niccolò Machiavelli
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Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.
~ Eric Hoffer
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Is there anything more satisfying than watching a debate in which the sophist gets defenestrated by someone smarter, better prepared, and obviously right?
~ Caitlin Flanagan via The Atlantic
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