“1 in a million chances happen 9 times out of 10”
— Terry PratchettSir Terry is all to easy to quote. This one always gets me thinking:
"There had been that Weapons Law, for a start. Weapons were involved in so many crimes that, Swing reasoned, reducing the number of weapons had to reduce the crime rate. Vimes wondered if he’d sat up in bed in the middle of the night and hugged himself when he’d dreamed that one up. Confiscate all weapons, and crime would go down. It made sense.
It would have worked, too, if only there had been enough coppers—say, three per citizen. Amazingly, quite a few weapons were handed in. The flaw, though, was one that had somehow managed to escape Swing, and it was this: criminals don’t obey the law. It’s more or less a requirement for the job. They had no particular interest in making the streets safer for anyone except themselves. And they couldn’t believe what was happening. It was like Hogswatch every day.
Some citizens took the not-unreasonable view that something had gone a bit askew if only naughty people were carrying arms. And they got arrested in large numbers.
The average copper, when he’s been kicked in the nadgers once too often and has reason to believe that his bosses don’t much care, has an understandable tendency to prefer to arrest those people who won’t instantly try to stab him, especially if they act a bit snotty and wear more expensive clothes than he personally can afford.
The rate of arrests shot right up, and Swing had been very pleased about that. Admittedly, most of the arrests had been for possessing weaponry after dark, but quite a few had been for assaults on the Watch by irate citizens.
That was Assault On A City Official, a very important and despicable crime, and, as such, far more important than all these thefts that were going on everywhere. It wasn’t that the city was lawless. It had plenty of laws. It just didn’t offer many opportunities not to break them.
Swing didn’t seem to have grasped the idea that the system was supposed to take criminals and, in some rough-and-ready fashion, force them into becoming honest men. Instead, he’d taken honest men and turned them into criminals. And the Watch, by and large, into just another gang."
And that from a liberal Englishman. I was taken aback reading Monstrous Regiment. "Did this guy write a book full of trans characters 21-years ago?! (Honestly, it got a little silly at the end with all the characters ending up trans, and a couple gay I think.)
”A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts.” Alan Watts
I think it’s just a reminder of the pointlessness of overthinking. I find it poignant because I spend a lot of time lost in rumination, myself
“The problem with internet quotes is that you cannot always depend on their accuracy.”
― Abraham Lincoln 1864
David Foster Wallace: You’ll stop worrying* what others think about you when you realize how seldom they do.
* It might ‘caring’ rather than ‘worrying’, I’m not sure, and can’t be bothered finding the book to check it.
It’s also possible that DFW didn’t coin this phrase.
This too shall pass.
No matter how good or bad your life is, there will ways be change.
“To know which questions are unanswerable, and to not answer them: this is the skill that is most needful in times of stress and darkness.”
- Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
I’m a simple man:
“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.
If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.
- H. H. Dalai Lama
I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks he knows. I neither know nor think I know.
- Socrates
Unfortunately, a lot of smart people still have this problem. I’d say I’m pretty damn well rounded and all that’s taught me is how easy it is to find a subject that I don’t know that’s still very important. Meanwhile, you can hardly throw a rock without finding an engineer that thinks he should rule the world.
To be fair to the engineers it’s not hard to do a better job then the people paid to be make our lives miserable for the profit of a few.
A lot of engineers end up becoming those people. Elon Musk isn’t even an engineer, but that’s the general vibe I’m thinking of.
“Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.”
- Dalinar Kholin
I am typically this when someone accuses me of being a hypocrite. Either way, I certainly do tolerate it though, in fact I have a system for it.
What is better: to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?
-Paarthurnax
“Change and comfort rarely come together”
- Unattributed quote from a manager I work with
Comparison is the thief of happiness.
I have many favorites, but this comes to mind often.
Fear shrinks the brain.
Is another good one.
Fear is the mind-killer
I like that. Also, “if they want you to be afraid, they don’t want you to think.”
Off the top of my head, I’m going to go with Hanlon’s razor: “Don’t attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity”
Although, it’s somewhat complicated by the existence of willful or lazy ignorance.
The willow knows what the storm does not: that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it.
From the Magic: The Gathering card “Blood of the Martyr”
Oi oi oi. Me gotta hurt in here. Me smell a ting is near. Gonna bosh, and gonna nosh, and then the ting will disappear.
— Uthden Troll
