“If we, who live outside asylums, act as if we lived in a fictitious world- that is to say, if we are consistent with our beliefs- we cannot adjust ourselves to actual conditions, and so fall into many avoidable semantic difficulties. But the so-called normal person practically never abides by his beliefs, and when his beliefs are building for him a fictitious world, he saves his neck by not abiding by them. A so-called "insane" person acts upon his beliefs, and so cannot adjust himself to a world which is quite different from his fancy.” IfsWorldPersonsDifferentFaithFallBeliefConditionsBuildingNormalDifficultyInsaneFancyNecksConsistentAbidingAsylumsInsane Person Book:Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics Source: Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
“The person who can freely acknowledge that life is full of difficulties can be free, because they are acknowledging the nature of life - that it can't be much else.” PersonsLife IsDifficultyAcknowledge Author:Shunryu Suzuki
“Our daily life is mostly, made of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm. Nobody knows, understands or can possibly explain why that preposterous creature does what he does. In fact there is no explanation - or better there is only one explanation: the person in question is stupid.” KnowsPersonsDoeMadeFactsActionLife IsEnergyLosesCasesStupidCreaturesGainsDifficultyHarmExplanationDaily LifeAppetiteEmbarrassmentGood HealthCheerfulnessNobody KnowsImprobable Author:Carlo M. Cipolla
“By the time the average person finishes college, he or she will have taken over 2,600 tests, quizzes, and exams. The right answer approach becomes deeply ingrained in our thinking. This may be fine for some mathematical problems where there is in fact only one right answer. The difficulty is that most of life isn’t this way. Life is ambiguous; there are many right answers- all depending on what you’re looking for. But if you think there is only one right answer, then you’ll stop looking as soon as you find one.” IfsThinkingWayLifeMayPersonsFactsProblemLife IsAnswersTakenCollegeFineApproachTestsDifficultyAverageMathematicalAmbiguousExamAverage PersonRight AnswersQuizMathematical Problems Author:Roger von Oech
“It belongs to small-mindedness to be unable to bear either honor or dishonor, either good fortune or bad, but to be filled with conceit when honored and puffed up by trifling good fortune, and to be unable to bear even the smallest dishonor and to deem any chance failure a great misfortune, and to be distressed and annonyed at everything. Moreover the small-minded man is the sort of person to call all slights an insult and dishonor, even those that are due to ignorance or forgetfulness. Small-mindedness is accompanied by pettiness, querulousness, pessimism and self-abasement.” MenPersonsSelfChanceIgnoranceBearsHonorDifficultyFilledFortuneDuesInsultMisfortunesPessimismSmallestHonoredGood FortuneConceitCopingForgetfulnessDishonorTriflingPettinessAbasement Author:Aristotle