we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others

-- Etty Hillesum, from Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork, p. 218

Quote in context

29 September. You often said, "This is a sin against the spirit, it will be avenged." Every sin against the spirit will be avenged, in man himself and in the world outside. 

Let me just note down one more thing for myself: Matthew 6:34: Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 

We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies. We make mental provision for the days to come, and everything turns out differently, quite differently. Sufficient unto the day. The things that have to be done must be done, and for the rest we must not allow ourselves to become infested with thousands of petty fears and worries, so many motions of no confidence in God. Everything will turn out all right with my residence permit and with my ration book; right now there's no point in brooding about it, and I would do much better to write a Russian essay. Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world. 

It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too.

--- Eugene Wigner, quoted in Physics Today, July 1993 according to quote-wise.com

Found via a letter to New Scientist from Richard Cragg (13 Aug 2016, issue #3086):

Thank you for Regina Peldszus's review of Samuel Arbesman's book warning that we have reached the stage where very few “experts” really understand the complexity of the software systems they have installed to control critical parts of our infrastructure (23 July, p 42). This reminds me of the lament of Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner: “It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too.”

It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too.

--- Eugene Wigner, quoted in Physics Today, July 1993 according to quote-wise.com

Found via a letter to New Scientist from Richard Cragg (13 Aug 2016, issue #3086):

Thank you for Regina Peldszus's review of Samuel Arbesman's book warning that we have reached the stage where very few “experts” really understand the complexity of the software systems they have installed to control critical parts of our infrastructure (23 July, p 42). This reminds me of the lament of Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner: “It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too.”

opinions embedded in math

--- Cathy O'Neil, author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, in an interview with IEEE Spectrum, October 2016

Quote in context

One of the things that makes big data so attractive is the assumption that it’s eliminating human subjectivity and bias. After all, you’re basing everything on hard numbers from the real world, right? Wrong. Predictive models and algorithms, says O’Neil, are really just “opinions embedded in math.” Algorithms are written by human beings with an agenda. The very act of defining what a successful algorithm looks like is a value judgement; and what counts as success for the builders of the algorithm (frequently profit, savings, or efficiency) is not always good for society at large.

I suspect that whatever cannot be said clearly is probably not being thought clearly either

--- Peter Singer in "Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter" (2016), quoted in The Economist review 17 September 2016

In the context of the review:

Mr Singer’s latest book, “Ethics in the Real World”, is a collection of 82 essays, each rarely more than three or four pages long. As such, it is an accessible introduction to the work of a philosopher who would not regard being described as “accessible” as an insult. As Mr Singer notes drily in the introduction, “I suspect that whatever cannot be said clearly is probably not being thought clearly either.”

not just San Francisco, but the entirety of Earth, is becoming uninhabitable to anyone who doesn’t make their living writing code all goddamned day

--- comedian/writer Megan Koester, quoted in The boho-drain: bohemians say goodbye San Francisco, hello LA, The Guardian, 26 September 2016

In context

A tip for newcomers: don’t marvel at cheap LA rents, because they’re not. Rents have soared in recent years. They still lag San Francisco but average incomes lag even more, so on that basis LA is actually less affordable.

 “Whenever anyone, from anywhere, moves into my city with a Camry and a dream, I can feel my cost of living increase,” Megan Koester, a comedian and writer, said via email. Even unglamorous San Fernando Valley has become pricey. “I tried to find an apartment there ... and everything was out of my range. Do you know how humbling it is to be priced out of the fucking Valley?”

San Francisco-esque cafes and restaurants were mushrooming, lamented Koester. “The kinds of places where pour over coffee is $7 and every table has a succulent on it. I don’t know if this can be blamed on the transplants, or on the fact that not just San Francisco, but the entirety of Earth, is becoming uninhabitable to anyone who doesn’t make their living writing code all goddamned day.”

Reforms by advances, that is, by new methods or gadgets, are of course impressive at first, but in the long run they are dubious and in any case dearly paid for

--- CG Jung, from The Tower, chapter VIII in Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1961,revised edition,  ppbk 1989), recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffé, transl. Richard and Clara Winston

In context:

… We refuse to recognize that everything better is purchased at the price of something worse; that, for example, the hope of greater freedom is canceled out by increased enslavement to the state, not to speak of the terrible perils to which the most brilliant discoveries of science expose us. The less we understand of what our fathers and forefathers sought, the less we understand ourselves, and thus we help with all our might to rob the individual of his roots and his guiding instincts, so that he becomes a particle in the mass, ruled only by what Nietzsche called the spirit of gravity. 

Reforms by advances, that is, by new methods or gadgets, are of course impressive at first, but in the long run they are dubious and in any case dearly paid for. They by no means increase the contentment or happiness of people on the whole. Mostly, they are deceptive sweetenings of existence, like speedier communications which unpleasantly accelerate the tempo of life and leave us with less time than ever before. Omnis festinatio ex parte diaboli est—all haste is of the devil, as the old masters used to say.

The goal of personal growth should be to gain that deathbed clarity while your life is still happening so you can actually do something about it.

--- Tim Urban, in Religion for the Nonreligious, Wait But Why 2014

In context:

Nothing clears fog like a deathbed, which is why it’s then that people can always see with more clarity what they should have done differently—I wish I had spent less time working; I wish I had communicated with my wife more; I wish I had traveled more; etc. The goal of personal growth should be to gain that deathbed clarity while your life is still happening so you can actually do something about it.

An interesting resonance with S.N. Goenka's book, The Art of Dying.

Just as a pot filled with water if overturned by anyone, pours out all its water … when you see those in need … then give like the overturned pot

--- The Buddha, Jātaka Nidānakathā 128, 129, quoted in Gemstones of the Good Dhamma, An Anthology of Verses from the Pali Scriptures, compiled and translated by Ven. S. Dhammika, The Wheel Publication No. 342/344

31. Yathapi kumbho sampunno
yassa kassaci adhokato
vamate udakam nissesam
na tattha parirakkhati.

Just as a pot filled with water
if overturned by anyone,
pours out all its water
and does not hold any back.


32. Tath'eva yacke disva
hinamukkatthamajjhime
dadahi danam nissesam
kumbho viya adhokato.

Even so, when you see those in need,
whether low, middle or high,
then give like the overturned pot,
holding nothing back.

He was a born columnist – keen to tell people what to think, and very good at expressing it in 800 words"

--- George Brock, former managing editor at The Times, about Michael Gove, in "A Leaver's lesson in political justice" by Henry Mance, The Financial Times, 2/3 July 2016

[the bed where] we forget, for one half of our life's duration, the sorrows of the other half

---  Xavier de Maistre, "Voyage Around My Room" (1794)

In context:

Heading north from my armchair, we discover my bed, which sits at the back of the room and creates a most agreeable perspective: it is most  felicitously situated, receiving the morning sun's first rays as they shine  through my curtains. . . . ls there any theater that better quickens the imagination, that more effectively awakens thoughts of tenderness, than  the piece of furniture in which I sometimes find oblivion? . . . And it is in this cradle of delight that we forget, for one half of our life's duration, the sorrows of the other  half.—Yet what a host of thoughts both pleasant and sad rush all at once  into my brain! What a bewildering mix of frightful and delightful situations! A bed witnesses our birth and it witnesses our death: it is the ever-changing theater where the human species enacts, by turns, . . . 

a wonderful little spot, a quaint and ceremonious village of puny demi-gods on stilts

--- Albert Einstein, in Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (2012, ppbk), p. 196

Quote in context:

Princeton, Einstein reported to his friend Elizabeth, the Queen of Belgium, "is a wonderful little spot, a quaint and ceremonious village of puny demi-gods on stilts. Yet, by ignoring certain social conventions, I have been able to create for myself an atmosphere conducive to study and free from dis- traction."

He did a great deal of good —far too much—and as a result was usually irritable

--- Carl Jung, from "Memories, Dreams, Reflections", transl. by Richard and Clara Winston, p. 91 (from the chapter, Student Years)

Quote in context:

During the years 1892—94 I had a number of rather vehement discussions with my father. He had studied Oriental languages in Göttingen and had done his dissertation on the Arabic version of the Song of Songs. His days of glory had ended with his final examination. Thereafter he forgot his linguistic talent. As a country parson he lapsed into a sort of sentimental idealism and into reminiscences of his golden student days, continued to smoke a long student's pipe, and discovered that his marriage was not all he had imagined it to be. He did a great deal of good —far too much—and as a result was usually irritable. Both parents made great efforts to live devout lives, with the result that there were angry scenes between them only too frequently.

Half of Life is lost in charming others. The other half is lost in going through anxieties caused by others. Leave this play, you have played enough.

--- ascribed to Rumi, e.g. http://sayingimages.com/rumi-quotes-poem-love-life/

a book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul

--- Franz Kafka, quoted by Irina Bukova on the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April 2016 (pdf)

According to Cori Schumacher: "From a letter to Oskar Pollak dated January 27, 1904. It was written in Russian and there are various translations for it."

This is also stated on https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka, where a variety of variant translations are given:

• I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.

• If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.

• What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

• A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.

• A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.

• A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.

the whole world is drowned in the permanent present

--- Johnny Clegg, NPR interview, April 9, 2016, at 5:36

"I think also, the whole world is drowned in the permanent present. I don't think people have a sense of history, any more. I think everyone needs a refresher course in understanding that things, as we have them today, we went through quite a struggle to get here. . . It didn't arrive here on its own."