Martin Svoboda

@quick, member from April 4, 2011
Stephen Hawking photo

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Der Spiegel (17 October 1988)

Laozi photo

“Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…

Also: "Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner"
Also: "If you care what people think, you will always be their prisoner"
Appears in Stephen Mitchell's rendering into English http://terebess.hu/english/tao/mitchell.html#Kap09 of Tao Te Ching chapter 9; but this is an interpretation of Mitchell's which does not appear in the original text or other recognized English translations. Repeated without attribution in Gilliland, Hide Your Goat https://books.google.com/books?id=ziJQdUzCgTIC&pg=PT98&dq=Care+what+other+think+%22you+will+always+be%22+their+prisoner&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBGoVChMIpsbNzO69yAIVCU2ICh0mXwIE#v=onepage&q=Care%20what%20other%20think%20%22you%20will%20always%20be%22%20their%20prisoner&f=false, a positive thinking book published in 2013.
Misattributed

Bruce Lee photo

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Arthur Miller photo

“Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away.”

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States

Variant: You can quicker get back a million dollars that was stolen than a word that you gave away.
Source: A View from the Bridge: A Play in Two Acts

Thomas Mann photo

“Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.”

Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate

Source: The Beloved Returns (1939), Ch. 7
Context: Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unregarded it slips away, like a lizard, smooth, slippery, faithless, a pixy wife. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

Thomas Mann photo

“Writing well was almost the same as thinking well, and thinking well was the next thing to acting well.”

Source: The Magic Mountain (1924), Ch. 4
Context: Writing well was almost the same as thinking well, and thinking well was the next thing to acting well. All moral discipline, all moral perfection derived from the soul of literature, from the soul of human dignity, which was the moving spirit of both humanity and politics. Yes, they were all one, one and the same force, one and the same idea, and all of them could be comprehended in one single word... The word was — civilization!

Thomas Mann photo

“Life is not the means for the achievement of an esthetic ideal of perfection; on the contrary, the work is an ethical symbol of life.”

Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate

Reflections of a Non-Political Man [Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen] (1918)
Context: The important thing for me, then, is not the "work," but my life. Life is not the means for the achievement of an esthetic ideal of perfection; on the contrary, the work is an ethical symbol of life.

Thomas Mann photo

“Every reasonable human being should be a moderate Socialist.”

Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate

As quoted in The New York Times (18 June 1950); also in Thomas Mann: A Critical Study (1971) by R. J. Hollingdale, Ch. 2

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“We like to be out in nature so much because it has no opinion about us.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“Destination and paths. Many people are obstinate about the path once it is taken, few people about the destination.”

Section IX, "Man Alone with Himself" / aphorism 494
Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“Shadow in the flame. The flame is not so bright to itself as to those on whom it shines: so too the wise man.”

Section IX, "Man Alone with Himself" / aphorism 570
Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“In the mountains of truth you will never climb in vain: either you will get up higher today or you will exercise your strength so as to be able to get up higher tomorrow.”

II.293, maxim 358 http://books.google.kz/books?id=Nl-vaAdJD3MC&pg=PA293&dq=%22In+the+mountains+of+truth+you+will+never+climb+in+vain%22&hl=en
Human, All Too Human (1878)

Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“We often contradict an opinion for no other reason than that we do not like the tone in which it is expressed.”

I.303 http://books.google.com/books?id=Nl-vaAdJD3MC&q="we+often+contradict+an+opinion+for+no+other+reason+than+that+we+do+not+like+the+tone+in+which+it+is+expressed"&pg=PA137#v=onepage
Human, All Too Human (1878)

Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Jawaharlal Nehru photo