It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature’s productions, either for beauty or value. Art is only the under-workman, and is employed to give a few strokes of embellishment to those pieces, which come from the hand of the master

— David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary

This is not nihilistic moral relativism, according to which all arguments are valid (and therefore none of them are), but rather, recognition of the fact that arguments are often a matter of perspective. They can be seen as valid or invalid, weak or strong, only within specific contexts.

— Nana Ariel, Back to the Sophists

In a broken world, we must also realize that power is often unearned, and it doesn’t just come to those who would use it well.

— Francis Su, Mathematics for Human Flourishing

Increasingly, people don’t become academics because of intelligence, but rather because of a lower grasp of disorder.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes

A database is just a collection of data organized in some way.

— Jonathan E. Steinhart, The Secret Life of Programs