Once in every generation, without fail, there is an episode of hysteria about the barbarians.

— J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians

As a general rule, the discretion to make decisions should be delegated to the people who must implement those decisions.

— Marianne Bellotti, Kill It With Fire

The way you spend an average day indicates the way you’ll probably spend your life.

— Brennen Reece, Productivity for the Depressive Polymath

The ultimate act of disempowerment is to take away the responsibility for the schedule from those who must live by it. –Jim McCarthy…

— Steve McConnell, Rapid Development

The spiritualisation of sensuality is a great triumph over Christianity. A further triumph is our spiritualisation of enmity. This consists in our profound understanding of the value of having enemies: in short, our doing and deciding the opposite of what people previously thought and decided … Throughout the ages the church has wanted to destroy its enemies: we, the immoralists and anti-Christians, see it as to our advantage that the church exists … Even in the field of politics, enmity has become spiritualised. Almost every party sees that self-preservation is best served if the opposite number does not lose its powers. The same is true of Realpolitik. A new creation, such as the new Reich, needs enemies more than it does friends: only by being opposed does it feel necessary; only by being opposed does it become necessary. Our behaviour towards our ‘inner enemy’ is no different: here, too, we have spiritualised enmity; here, too, we have grasped its value.

— Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols