To take something seriously is to make that thing a referendum on who you are; on your value and worth as a human being. To take something seriously is to invest that something with the ability to determine whether you matter. You’re giving that something the ability to provide you with, or keep you from, experiencing ultimate security.

— Jim Dethmer, Conscious Competition

The entire earth, perpetually steeped in blood, is nothing but an immense altar on which every living thing must be immolated without end.

— St Petersburg Dialogues, Joseph De Maistre

If the Defense Department pays a thousand dollars for toilet seats, it’s partly because it costs a lot to sell toilet seats for a thousand dollars.

— Paul Graham, Hackers & Painters

Working overtime is not a way to show your dedication to your employer. What it shows is that you are a bad planner, that you agree to deadlines to which you shouldn’t agree, that you make promises you shouldn’t make, that you are a manipulable laborer and not a professional.

— Robert C. Martin, Clean Agile

Since ongoing Russian terror is the price Ukrainians pay for their courage, it is outright perverse for us to use it in the satisfaction of our own psychological needs.

— Maurits de Jongh, Hannah Arendt: On the Spectre of Nuclear War