I wish I read more non-fiction.
There was a time when I was proud of not reading Fiction, Proud of not wasting my time with mindless stories that did not add to my knowledge.
That has changed, I have discovered, that literature is critical for communication, great writers are not only great thinkers but are great at understanding concepts and propagating them.
Making people listen is hard, first, you need to grab their attention, then you need to hold it till you get all your words across, words so important, that others remember, or better yet they spread it. Best ideas are condensed into a few words and can be used for both good and evil
- Yes we can
- Lock her up
- Modi hai to Mumkin hai (If Modi is there, it is possible)
- A Diamond is forever
Some words are fact, some fiction, and those who wield the power to capture attention will share what they feel is important, or worse, they will rent their ability to propagate words to others at a cost (aka Marketing )
Here are some of there great quotes I have read recently
From Atlas Shrugged
"It is only in the realm of pure science that truth is an absolute criterion. When we deal with applied science, with technology-we deal with people. And when we deal with people, considerations other than truth enter the question."
"Thought is a primitive superstition. Reason is an irrational idea. The childish notion that we are able to think has been mankind's costliest error."
"What you think you think is an illusion created by your glands, your emotions and, in the last analysis, by the content of your stomach."
"That gray matter you're so proud of is like a mirror in an amusement park which transmits to you nothing but distorted signals from a reality forever beyond your grasp." "The more certain you feel of your rational conclusions, the more certain you are to be wrong. Your brain being an instrument of distortion, the more active the brain the greater the distortion."
"The giants of the intellect, whom you admire so much, once taught you that the earth was flat and that the atom was the smallest particle of matter. The entire history of science is a progression of exploded fallacies, not of achievements."
"The more we know, the more we learn that we know nothing."
From Dune
"There is no escape-we pay for the violence of our ancestors." - from "The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
From Poems - The Genius Of The Crowd, By Charles Bukowski
There is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day
and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace
those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love
From Popular Quotes
"He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How." - Nietzsche
What are some of your popular quotes? Share them with me on Twitter