“Present action, though futile, is preferable to passive acceptance of such a fate as awaits us.”
Source: A Quest for Simbilis (1974), Chapter 6, “The House on the River” (p. 112)
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Aaron C. Brown (1956) American financial analyst
Source: The Poker Face of Wall Street (2006), Chapter 4, A Brief History of Risk Denial, p. 75
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), X : Religion, the Mythology of the Beyond and the Apocatastasis
“It was fate, and being angry at fate was as futile as being angry at the weather.”
Ian McDonald book Desolation Road
Source: Desolation Road (1988), Chapter 23 (p. 116).
Amy Winehouse (1983–2011) English singer and songwriter
Love Is A Losing Game
Song lyrics, Back To Black (2006)
Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow
Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), Chapter 34, "Frames and reality", page 367 (ISBN 9780141033570).
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), XI : The Practical Problem
Context: More than a century ago, in 1804, in Letter XC of that series that constitutes the immense monody of his Obermann, Sénancour wrote the words which I have put at the head of this chapter — and of all the spiritual descendants of the patriarchal Rousseau, Sénancour was the most profound and intense; of all the men of heart and feeling that France has produced, not excluding Pascal, he was the most tragic. "Man is perishable. That may be; but let us perish resisting, and if it is nothingness that awaits us, do not let us so act that it shall be a just fate." Change this sentence from it negative to the positive form — "And if it is nothingness that awaits us, let us so act that it shall be an unjust fate" — and you get the firmest basis of action for the man who cannot or will not be a dogmatist.
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American politician, 41st President of the United States
and this, my friends, is crucial.
Inaugural Address (1989)
“Useful Things, though Mechanical, are justly preferable to useless Speculations in Geometry”
Isaac Newton book Arithmetica Universalis
Arithmetica Universalis (1707), p.248