What is true is already so. Owning up to it doesn’t make it worse. Not being open about it doesn’t make it go away. And because it’s true, it is what is there to be interacted with. Anything untrue isn’t there to be lived. People can stand what is true, for they are already enduring it.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, How to Actually Change Your Mind

If it turns out that P = NP and we have efficient algorithms for all NP problems, the world will change in ways that will make the Internet seem like a footnote in history.

— Lance Fortnow, The Golden Ticket

1. Identify a project for happiness.
2. Imagine that the project may be false. Look for exceptions to the supposed link between the desired object and happiness. Could one possess the desired object but not be happy? Could one be happy but not have the desired object?
3. If an exception is found, the desired object cannot be a necessary and sufficient cause of happiness.
4. In order to be accurate about producing happiness, the initial project must be nuanced to take the exception into account.
5. True needs may now seem very different from the confused initial desire.

— Alain De Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy

joy is always imperiled.

— Albert CAMUS, The Plague

Greek philosopher Democritus (460–370 BC) said, “I would rather discover one cause than be the King of Persia.”

— Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie, The Book of Why