Yep

The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury. 
~George Washington

Simple, indeed

There are really just five simple lessons to life: 
Be honest, work hard, have fun, be grateful, and pay it forward.
~ Bruce Halle, Founder of Discount Tire

Old wisdom

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

~ Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)

What, indeed...

What is it about sad songs and cowboys?

~ Summer Higgins in Yellowstone

The Transitive Theory of Your Destiny

Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. 
Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions.  
Consider and judge your actions, for they have become your habits. 
Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they shall become your values.  
Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny. 
~ Mahatma Gandhi

Tree logic

Lloyd (discussing Tate):  He has it, though.

Monica:  Has what?

Lloyd:  Toughness.  You're either born a willow or born an oak - that all there is to it.

~ from Yellowstone

I need to get to boilin'...

You know, when you boil it all down, 

it's funny how little you need.

~ Rip, in Yellowstone

Good advice

Conquer yourself rather than the world. 
~ René Descartes (1596 - 1650)

Not bad

Interviewer:  What is your definition of happiness? 

A clear horizon;
nothing to worry about on your plate,
only things that are creative and not destructive.
~ Alfred Hitchcock

Sharks and Minnows

There's sharks and minnows in this world, Jimmy, and if you don't know which one you are, then you ain't a fuckin' shark.
~ Rip Wheeler, in Yellowstone

Courage, indeed...

Everyone needs a dream, Dan.

But dreams take courage.

~ John Dutton, in Yellowstone

Meditating on this lately

A diseased and weak population is easier to control
~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Simple thoughts

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
~ President Theodore Roosevelt

Soul

Anybody can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the prairie.
~ Willa Cather

So very sad

You can’t go to a SUPER BOWL PARADE, a bowling alley, to a restaurant, to work, to the mall, to a grocery store, to your church, to the movies or the bank. 

You can’t attend a concert, go to a dance class or go to see your doctor. 

You can’t ring a doorbell, use a leaf blower, hop in a car, pull down a driveway, bounce a ball, or ask the neighbor to keep it down. 

You can’t check out a farmer’s market or pick up a package at the post office or go to a Fourth of July parade, and you certainly can’t send your kids to school without worrying that someone will get shot. 

That someone you LOVE will get shot. 
Or that YOU will get shot. 
This is where we are now. 
This is not normal. 

This upside down reality is being imposed upon us by those who equate firearms with freedom. 

This is anything BUT freedom. 

And. This. Is. Not. A. Reality. We. Have. To. Accept. 

I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS REALITY. 
~ Jo on Twitter

Context note - today February 14, 2024 - after the KC Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade, a moron opened fire on the crowd, killing one and wounding 11 to 20 (numbers are not final at this time)

Food for thought...

What people think success is:
  • Making lots of money 
 What success actually is:
  • Being healthy
  • Having morals
  • Not being a dick
  • Being a good friend
  • Owning your own time
  • Being present with family
  • Being authentic to yourself
  • Working on something meaningful
~ Dan Go

Lessons to learn

The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think.When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt.
 
 We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.
~ Richard Feynman

I'm gonna meditate on this for a few days...

  • Positivity is a CHOICE
  • Happiness is a CHOICE
  • Giving back is a CHOICE
  • Being honest is a CHOICE
  • Showing gratitude is a CHOICE
  • Respecting yourself is a CHOICE
  • Being kind to everyone is a CHOICE
The older I get the more I see life is simply what we CHOOSE to make it. 

~ Tyler Todt

Ha!

If 'ifs' were fifths, then we'd all be drunk

~ heard on a sports TV show

Indeed

No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training

... what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable

~ Socrates

Good advice

Do not use your energy to worry. 
Use your energy to believe, to create, to learn, to think and to grow. 
~ Richard Feynman

True

If you are not too long,

I will wait here for you

all the days of my life.

~ Oscar Wilde

Yep

I loved her against reason,
against promise, against peace,
against hope, against happiness,
against all discouragement 
that could be.
~ Charles Dickens, from Great Expectations

As usual!

Brenda:  Are you drunk?

George: [scoffs] Not nearly enough!

~ from Young Sheldon

To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold. 
 ~ Unknown
I kissed her neck and shoulders. I felt faint with loving her so much.
~ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
My life used to be full of everything. Now if you aren't with me I haven't a thing in the world. 
~ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts.
~ C. S. Lewis

The differentiator

The biggest factor for success in any pursuit:  
     Consistency  
 It can be the smallest, seemingly insignificant habit 
 But if you do it everyday, those results compound 
 Very few people have that level of consistency and discipline  
 It will set you apart 
~ Mackenzie Smith

The man makes a good point

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

~ Plato

Working on it...

There are three things you have to know:

  • What you desire
  • What you believe
  • What you have to do  

~ St. Thomas Aquinas

Meditating on this

The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know. 
The less you know, the more you think you know everything.  
Knowledge is humbling. Ignorance is arrogant.
~ Richard Feynman

Not a bit surprising...

If I said what I know about both candidates, they’d have to cancel the (2016) election. 
~ Jeffrey Epstein

Good advice!

Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't consider as food.
~ Michael Pollan

Aspirational!

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. 
Intelligence plus character - that is goal of true education.

~ Dr. Martin Luther King

Reflective Listening - try these phrases

What I'm hearing you say is...

Did I hear you well?

Is there more?

Every day...

If you quit now,

You will end up back where you first began...

And when you first began, 

you were desperate to be

where you are right now!

Keep going!

~ @raise.the.vibe.tribe

Seems reasonable...

If you want to understand how to fix a problem in the world, you have to ask yourself who is profiting from the problem... 
... not who is suffering from it.

~ internet wisdom 

Political explanation from Ann Landers (probably from the '60s)

  • Socialism: You have two cows. Give one cow to your neighbor. 
  • Communism: You have two cows. Give both cows to the government, and they may give you some milk. 
  • Fascism: You have two cows. You give all of the milk to the government, and the government sells it. 
  • Nazism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes both cows. 
  • Anarchism: You have two cows. Keep both cows, shoot the government agent and steal another cow. 
  • Capitalism: You have two cows. Sell one, buy a bull.

This has been my experience.

Most people aren't looking for your opinion and solution, they are looking for validation and sympathy.
~ found on the interwebs

Keep hope alive!

I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.
~ Anne Frank
Stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one. 
~ Marcus Aurelius

OG words to ponder

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: "I have to go to work - as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for - the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?"  
- But it's nicer here...  
So you were born to feel "nice"? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don't you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you're not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren't you running to do what your nature demands?” 
~ Marcus Aeurelius

Fulfillment - wouldn't that be nice?

You'll never be truly satisfied with where you are It's life - there's always another level  
That's why putting off your happiness until you reach "X" goal is dangerous  
It's about falling in love with the process, growth and pursuit of your goals  

That's where fulfillment lies
~ Mackenzie Smith

Good advice...

The Gell-Mann Razor:

Assume every media article contains a non-zero percentage of false information. 

Sandbox the article from your worldview until you've:
  • Seen primary sources
  • Spoken to 3 domain experts

One of JFK's favorite sayings - still applies to many of today's situations

Chesterton's fence

Do not remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.

leaving the other problems unresolved...

Money can only solve money problems.

~ found on the internet

And that was many years ago!

You go talk to kindergartners or first grade kids, you find a class full of science enthusiasts.  They ask deep questions.  They ask, "What is a dream, why do we have toes, why is the moon round, what it the birthday of the world. why is grass green?"  These are profound, important questions! They just bubble right out of them.

Then you go talk to 12th graders and there's none of that.  They've become incurious.  Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade.
~ Carl Sagan

Also agreed

It is not that we have too little time, but that we waste too much of it. 

~ Seneca

Agreed

No one ever grew wise by chance.
~ Seneca

Yikes!

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. 
~ Albert Einstein

Indeed...

A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought — they must be earned. 
~ Naval Ravikant

New concepts I will apply

 Amy Poehler’s Nine Rules for Improv (and life)

  1. Keep saying yes
  2. Be a good listener 
  3. Find your team
  4. Find the game (what is the purpose of this situation)
  5. Take up space (believing you belong here, advocate for yourself, don’t shrink, be fearless).  But ask yourself, “does the scene need you?” 
  6. Can’t be halfway in (life is a parade, you can watch from the sidelines, waiting to join the perfect float, or you can jump in and rock out!).  
  7. Don’t bail on your partners.  Everyone remembers, when things are at their worst, the people who scram.  Conversely, you are closest to the people that go down with the ship with you.
  8. Don’t worry about being cool.  
  9. Playing with status.  Being aware of status (Who you are in relation to other people) in social or professional situations can be entertaining or elucidating. 

Let’s dance!

Somewhere, there is the ideal soil for growing mangoes. Or the best possible wave for surfing. Or the most romantic sunset for a proposal. 

But it’s not right here and it’s not right now. 

Our success has a lot to do with how we dance with conditions that aren’t quite perfect.

~ Seth Godwin 

They don't write 'em like they used to...

Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. 
With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck. 
~ Thomas Jefferson (1822)

Seems reasonable enough

Be stronger than those that hate you, so that they cannot destroy you. Then forgive them.

~ Elon Musk

Indeed

Science is like sex.  Sometimes something useful comes out of it, but that's not why we are doing it.
~ Richard Feynman

Terrifying!

Compulsive liars shouldn't frighten you.  They can harm no one, if no one listens to them.

Compulsive believers, on the other hand - they should terrify you.

Believers are the liars' enablers.

~ Nick Cohen

Good plan!

Bop ‘till you drop.

~ Danny DeVito

Do not use your energy to worry. Use your energy to believe, to create, to learn, to think and to grow.

~ Richard Feynman