Grunts and Verbalizations

The truth can be truth only shorn of politics and if you think you are taking a “stance” then you have allowed politics in.

Self-hype is a purgatory of one’s own making.

Hype is the gateway drug into hell, or Communism, take your pick. Over-hype is totalitarianism itself.

Showmanship, salesmanship and self-promotion are symptoms of sickness in society. So is over-alliteration.

There is sometimes a fine line between persuasion and manipulation. Find it.

Fear the man who believes he is evil almost as much as you fear the man who believes he is good.

If a person stays in politics long enough he will become officious. He may barely avoid becoming a buffoon.

Contorting yourself to avoid hurting feelings leaves you in a knot and the other person as ignorant as before.

What is precious or refined or valuable in the human soul cannot be taught and what is common and vulgar does not need to be. All the stuff in between is what schools are for.

Creativity is pressed out of agony and loneliness and is one of the rarest rivers in the world. It flows from hidden places and cannot be taught or enhanced other than by appreciating it when it appears.

We have free will and we have none. Both assertions are true and cannot be reconciled.

Learn the difference between “lie” and “lay” and remember that the whole comprises the parts.

Pedantry cannot be taught.

Use logic in your language, it shapes your thinking. Avoid the false conditional. Whether the coat is in the closet doesn’t depend on your looking for it

No person can change the world and the planet doesn’t need saving, and it is abusive to teach children that they can or it does.

There is no one rule that fits every situation in life. That is why they shouldn’t be called rules.

Treating others as you want to be treated doesn’t mean treating them as they want to be treated.

Pick a standard and stick to it, unless it proves to be mistaken. But don’t think that makes its opposite correct.

The world is a messy place with lots of petty evil, but the vilest evil appears only when someone tries to clean it all up.

Don’t improve the image, improve the product.
Don’t make your employees feel valuable, make them valuable.
Don’t set an example, do what’s right.
Don’t show compassion, be compassionate.
Forget about being a role model, be a good person.

Reality doesn’t depend on what you believe, and the “arc of history” can’t be known by those inside it.

There is no art without craft, and there is no home without a house.

There is a difference between what is moving and what is manipulative in art.

In art, complexity and profundity don’t often mix. In nature they do.

The task of making and interpreting laws is too important to be left to lawyers.

The three greatest lies in America today: I don’t like sweets. I don’t watch a lot of television. I don’t care what anyone thinks about me.

What you see as inconsistency in another person may be a lack of understanding in you. If another’s argument appears wrong to you always remember that the wrong can be found in either of two places.

The glass is both half full and half empty. However you choose to interpret it doesn’t matter to the glass.

A foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, but quoting Emerson is the last refuge of demagogues.

Arguments are discussions that aren’t going anywhere.

If you simply cannot accept that “he” is a pronoun that is used for all gender, then resort to “they”. A grammatical abomination is better than “he/she”.

Don’t tell me what to do and I won’t ignore you. He who bosses knows very little, least of all himself.

If you are trying to solve a problem you won’t pick scapegoats. If you pick scapegoats, you aren’t trying to solve the problem.

Because you want there to be evidence doesn’t mean there actually is evidence.

Accusing someone of “whataboutism” may be a valid criticism, but remember that it is sword with blades on both ends.

The State of the Union is an abomination. It is a crass festival of puling spectacle. Anyone who tries to read the entrails of this mess is benighted almost beyond hope.

The first test a politician should face is whether he is embarrassed by the trappings of power.

 Don’t ask my opinion when you want validation. Danger, Will Robinson!

Cynicism is a legitimate defense against totalitarianism and an honest man values his detractors.

The smaller the organization the greater the tyrant.

The problem with Abraham Lincoln’s dictum is that only the fools keep talking.

Human intelligence is sometimes good at reasoning from premises but no help at all in defining the premises.

Aim for competence. It is the only path to greatness.

The only religion worth following is one that promises hard work and pain. And some redemption at the end.

Reality has no obligation to follow anyone’s scheme. Life is not tricked by our schemes, but often we are.

Run from those who deny reality almost as fast as from those who claim it for themselves.

There is good and there is evil, but men are not divided between the evil and the good. No man is evil in his own mind but some of us are whistling past the graveyard.

If everything deserves a standing ovation, then why waste the energy? Sitting is more comfortable, but then your butt may be numb so what the heck. It doesn’t mean anything anyway. Many times it is simply sophistication-signaling by people who don’t understand what they just experienced.

There is no such thing as an erroneous fact. There is a fact that you believe and there is a fact that you do not believe. But regardless, it is a fact.

Every sane person cares what other people think about him, and even the mentally ill are mildly curious.

There is no such thing as a free lunch and every human action involves a trade-off.

Genocide is natural and authentic. And GMO free, too!

Life is messy. Every moral question is on a sliding scale and sometimes where we draw the lines is arbitrary, but draw the lines we must.

Money can’t buy happiness but it can fix some of the things that get in the way.

Not every job worth doing is worth doing well, and a wise man chooses his battles carefully.

Slam dunks do not win basketball games and hot takes do not win arguments. Why do you understand the former and not the latter?

There is always a good reason for doing the wrong thing.

A debate with no debate is no debate.

You can’t take it with you. Not even toilet paper.

There is one thing worse than hearing spoiled people complain about minor hardships. It is the sound they make patting themselves on the back for their heroism in enduring them.

The future of humanity is not in its past. The essence of man is not in his suffering.

Mistakes are life. Denying mistakes is human. Celebrating mistakes we leave to stars and politicians.

Lies of necessity diminish. Lies of convenience destroy.

Lack of omniscience is not proof of negligence. Fallibility is not liability.