„It is difficult for a fool's habits to change to selflessness. … Because we do most things relying only on our own sagacity we become self-interested, turn our backs on reason, and things do not turn out well.“
Variant translation: When all your judgements are based on your own wisdom, you tend towards selfishness and fail by straying from the right path. Your own judgements are narrow minded and have no persuasive power or growth for others. It is best to consult a wise man when a fit decision does not occur to you. A wise man is a fair judge from an objective point of view. He is passing judgement for the benefit of others, not for his own sake. A judgement passed using only one's own wisdom is just like thrusting a stick into the ground and expecting it to grow!
Hagakure (c. 1716)
Kontext: It is difficult for a fool's habits to change to selflessness.... Because we do most things relying only on our own sagacity we become self-interested, turn our backs on reason, and things do not turn out well. As seen by other people this is sordid, weak, narrow and inefficient. When one is not capable of true intelligence, it is good to consult with someone of good sense. An advisor will fulfill the Way when he makes a decision by selfless and frank intelligence because he is not personally involved. This way of doing things will certainly be seen by others as being strongly rooted. It is, for example, like a large tree with many roots. One man's intelligence is like a tree that has been simply stuck in the ground.
We learn about the sayings and deeds of the men of old in order to entrust ourselves to their wisdom and prevent selfishness. When we throw off our own bias, follow the sayings of the ancients, and confer with other people, matters should go well and without mishap.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
japanischer Samurai und Autor des Werkes Hagakure 1659 - 1719Ähnliche Zitate
— Marcel Proust, buch In Search of Lost Time
Nous n'arrivons pas à changer les choses selon notre désir, mais peu à peu notre désir change. La situation que nous espérions changer parce qu'elle nous était insupportable, nous devient indifférente. Nous n'avons pas pu surmonter l'obstacle, comme nous le voulions absolument, mais la vie nous l'a fait tourner, dépasser, et c'est à peine alors si en nous retournant vers le lointain du passé nous pouvons l'apercevoir, tant il est devenu imperceptible.
Quelle: In Search of Lost Time, Remembrance of Things Past (1913-1927), Vol. VI: The Sweet Cheat Gone (1925), Ch. I: "Grief and Oblivion"
— Georges Duhamel French writer 1884 - 1966
Quelle: Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters] (1937), p. ix
— Heber J. Grant President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1856 - 1945
Attributed to Grant in: Fred G. Taylor (1944) A saga of sugar. p. 197
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
Variante: That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.
— Chris Anderson, buch The Long Tail
Quelle: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (2006), Ch. 2, p. 40
— Nelson Mandela President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist 1918 - 2013
Nelson Mandela on Aids, 46664 Concert, Tromso, Norway (11 Jun 2005). Source: From Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations © 2010 by Nelson R. Mandela and The Nelson Mandela Foundation http://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/mini-site/selected-quotes
2000s
— Steve Bannon American media executive and former White House Chief Strategist for Donald Trump 1953
Quelle: Daily Beast http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/19/donald-trump-s-new-chief-steve-bannon-called-republican-leaders-c-ts.html (August 19, 2016)
— David L. Norton American philosopher 1930 - 1995
Quelle: Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (1976), p. 4
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. United States Supreme Court justice 1841 - 1935
"The Path of the Law," Address to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts at the dedication of the new hall of the Boston University School of Law (8 January 1897), published in Harvard Law Review, Vol. 10 (25 March 1897).
1890s
— John Galsworthy English novelist and playwright 1867 - 1933
Vague Thoughts On Art (1911)
Kontext: Only out of stir and change is born new salvation. To deny that is to deny belief in man, to turn our backs on courage! It is well, indeed, that some should live in closed studies with the paintings and the books of yesterday — such devoted students serve Art in their own way. But the fresh-air world will ever want new forms. We shall not get them without faith enough to risk the old! The good will live, the bad will die; and tomorrow only can tell us which is which!
— Ludwig Wittgenstein Austrian-British philosopher 1889 - 1951
Quelle: Culture and Value (1980), p. 53e
„The most difficult thing is to know what we do know, and what we do not know.“
— P. D. Ouspensky, buch Tertium Organum
Quelle: Tertium Organum (1912; 1922), Ch. I
Kontext: The most difficult thing is to know what we do know, and what we do not know.
Therefore, desiring to know anything, we shall before all else determine WHAT we accept as given, and WHAT as demanding definition and proof; that is, determine WHAT we know already, and WHAT we wish to know.
In relation to the knowledge of the world and of ourselves, the conditions would be ideal could we venture to accept nothing as given, and count all as demanding definition and proof. In other words, it would be best to assume that we know nothing, and make this our point of departure.
But unfortunately such conditions are impossible to create. Knowledge must start from some foundation, something must be recognized as known; otherwise we shall be obliged always to define one unknown by means of another.
— Scott Westerfeld, buch Peeps
Variante: It’s amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.
Quelle: Peeps
