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Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?

#442

Post by nkoren »

kleer001 wrote: post #409
nkoren wrote: post #89

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." -- George Bernard Shaw

I would add that all atrocities depend on unreasonable people. Reasonable people keep the world running smoothly.

It cuts both ways. You're not wrong, and yet atrocities frequently depend on people following orders, which is something that only an unreasonable person won't do.

Basically, for good or ill, history pivots around the unreasonable people. The reasonable ones might be bystanders or accomplices, but in either case, going with the flow is simply the reasonable thing to do.

Re: Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?

#445

Post by Foober223 »

mmcnl wrote: post #422
japhyr wrote: post #28

When I was in my 20s I lived on a bicycle for a year, going around the lower 48 and Canada, and then up to Alaska. I lived for two weeks in Joshua Tree with a guy named Tom, who slept in a cave the whole time. One morning we were sorting our gear and a piece of paper fell out of his wallet. As I handed it back to him, I read the three lines on it: Work hard. Be strong. Don't complain. I asked him about it, and he sai…

Is this really great advice? What if you don't feel strong? What if working hard makes you unhappy?

It's great advice if you don't have the luxury of being a 1st world free loader.
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