Some new quotes and queries from the Philosophy Breakfast gang during the first part of 2001:

• "Life sucks, and it's downhill from here." (GdM, 5 Jan)
• "We are not wired to think deductively or inductively — we are wired to think analogically." (BD, 12 Jan)
• "Is it the purpose of Government to spend money?" (RS, 12 Jan)
• "The individual means nothing in most countries; for us, the individual is everything." (BD, 23 Feb)
• "Being an adult is thinking two or more moves ahead in the game of life." (BD, 6 Apr)
• "We cannot be sure we have something worth living for unless we are ready to die for it." (?, 13 Apr)
• "Constructive inefficiency..." (a deliberate design strategy to make it hard to move too quickly, and thereby avoid catastrophic mistakes; see TheVeto - ?, 20 Apr)
• "Trying to mandate a Good Thing is a Bad Thing." (?, 11 May)
• "Humans differ from other animals because they ask why." (BW, 25 May)
• In a gold rush, "The only ones who win are those selling the shovels." (?, 25 May)
• "Epictetus says to manage your expectations at a low level, and you won't be disappointed. Marcus Aurelius is Epictetus with courage and confidence." (BD, 1 Jun)
• Re Seneca as Nero's tutor: "Some students you can't do anything with!" (BD, 15 Jun)
• "Death used to be on/off; now, it's a dimmer switch." (BW, 22 Jun)
• "We live in an age of weak people, who can't accept things that they cause themselves, or chance — but have to find someone to blame. ... People don't want to take responsibility." (BD, 29 Jun)
• Re reliable employees: "Don't trust anybody under 30." (LJR, 13 Jul)
• "We knew that was going to happen, but we didn't know where or when." (?, 20 Jul)
• "Scientists get caught up in their own metaphors." (JJ, 20 Jul)

And a Sunday School poem remembered from childhood (JJ, 1 Jun):

  For every evil under the Sun
    There is a remedy or there is none.
  If there is, try to find it;
    If there isn't, never mind it!

See PhiloBfastQs (9 April 2001)

TopicPhilosophy - TopicStoicism - TopicLife - 2001-08-18

(correlates: MagneticStuds, GovernmentJob, SandBox, ...)