In life our first job is this, to divide and distinguish things into two categories: externals I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them I do control. Where will I find good and bad? In me, in my choices. —EPICTETUS…

— Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way

In a large system without any overarching principle that allows elements to be interpreted in terms of their role in patterns that span the whole design, developers cannot see the forest for the trees.

— Eric Evans, Domain-Driven Design

Stoicism tries valiantly to relieve us of the fears linked to death, but at the cost of obliterating our individual identity.

— Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought

There is something very odd indeed in the belief that in looking, say, for causal laws or a unified theory, or in asking whether atoms really do obey the laws of quantum mechanics, the activities of scientists are somehow inherently ‘bourgeois’ or ‘Eurocentric’ or ‘masculinist’, or even ‘militarist’.

— Christopher Butler, Postmodernism

A single fleeting image can be enough to prime associated words for recognition. Don’t think it takes anything more to set confirmation bias in motion. All it takes is that one quick flash, and the bottom line is already decided, for we change our minds less often than we think . . .

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, How to Actually Change Your Mind