What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary -property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life -don’t be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn’t last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart -and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.

— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

…inequality itself is not morally objectionable; what is objectionable is poverty. If a person lives a long, healthy, pleasurable, and stimulating life, then how much money the Joneses earn, how big their house is, and how many cars they drive are morally irrelevant.

— Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

…two kinds of complexity: Essential complexity is the kind that is inherent in the problem domain. Incidental complexity is the kind that is introduced solely by the solution.

— Jamie Allen, Reactive Design Patterns

…it places the very angels of Heaven and devils of Hell on an equal footing; confronted by angels pleading for brotherly love and devils bent on human pain and misery, the pure moral relativist would have to juggle the benefits of brotherly love with those of demonic torment. (After all, millions of sadistic, bloodthirsty demons are entitled to their viewpoint as well!)

— Christopher Michael Langan, The Art of Knowing

…the problem is the one-eyed following the blind: these self-described members of the “intelligentsia” can’t find a coconut on Coconut Island, meaning they aren’t intelligent enough to define intelligence, hence fall into circularities—their main skill is a capacity to pass exams written by people like them, or to write papers read by people like them.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game