“In an individual one would regard it as evidence of insanity to see someone repeatedly undertaking enterprises that resulted in his losing precisely what he claimed he was trying to achieve; it is not less lunatic to do it on the international scale, but if you’ve been catching the news lately you’ll have noticed it’s being done more than ever.”

—  John Brunner, book Stand on Zanzibar

context (11) “Come Outside and Say That”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In an individual one would regard it as evidence of insanity to see someone repeatedly undertaking enterprises that res…" by John Brunner?
John Brunner photo
John Brunner147
British author 1934–1995

Related quotes

Wilfred Thesiger photo

“There is always trouble if meat is not divided by lot.  Someone immediately says that he has been given more than his share, and tries to hand a piece to someone else.  Then there is much arguing and swearing by God, with everyone insisting that he has been given too much, and finally a deadlock ensues which can only be settled by casting lots for the meat – as should have been done in the first place.  I have never heard a man grumble that he has received less than his share.  Such behaviour would be inconceivable to the Bedu, for they are careful never to appear greedy, and quick to notice anyone who is.”

Wilfred Thesiger book Arabian Sands

Source: Arabian Sands (1959), p. 71.

Donald J. Trump photo

“On the question if he would honor the results of the election should he lose:
"We're going to have to see. We're going to see what happens. We're going to have to see."”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

In an interview with the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/us/politics/donald-trump-interview-bill-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0; Trump Appears to Back Off Pledge to Support Clinton If She Wins http://www.nbcnews.com/card/trump-appears-back-pledge-support-clinton-if-she-wins-n657866, NBC News (30 September 2016) <br class="br">2010s, 2016, September

Muhammad photo

“In one variant, "When one of you sees someone who has been given more bounty in respect of wealth or physical strength, he should then look at someone who has less than him."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 3, hadith number 467
Sunni Hadith

Orson Scott Card photo

“He would rather lose his power for doing right, than keep his power by doing wrong. Because he loves his people more than he loves his office.”

Orson Scott Card book Stone Tables

Stone Tables (1997)

Ernest Flagg photo

“Unless he is prepared to try his new theories and processes on himself, as has been done here, there is little likelihood that he will ever see them applied, for he will find that, of all people, builders are most set in their ways and hardest to move from their accustomed ruts.”

Ernest Flagg (1857–1947) American architect

Introduction
Small Houses: Their Economic Design and Construction (1922)

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“6384. He that would please all, and himself too,
Undertakes what none could ever do.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Marie Curie photo

“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.”

Marie Curie (1867–1934) French-Polish physicist and chemist

Letter to her brother (1894)

Françoise Sagan photo

“Edouard was trying to understand, to find out what he could have done to lose Beatrice's favor. He couldn't know that his unpardonable sin was the fact that he was too deserving.”

Françoise Sagan book Dans un mois, dans un an

Dans un mois, dans un an (1957, Those Without Shadows, translated 1957)

Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“Sometimes a god comes,” Selver said. “He brings a new way to do a thing, or a new thing to be done. A new kind of singing, or a new kind of death. He brings this across the bridge between the dream-time and the world-time. When he has done this, it is done. You cannot take things that exist in the world and try to drive them back into the dream, to hold them inside the dream with walls and pretenses. That is insanity. What is, is. There is no use pretending, now, that we do not know how to kill one another.”

Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle

Section 8
Hainish Cycle, The Word for World Is Forest (1972)

Related topics