“Play is the highest form of research.” Albert Einstein.
This second tool is just about to know why great thinkers have said what they have said about the topics treated in this book.
Here we present what they have said, but is up to you to discover why they said what they have said.
The quotes are presented accordingly to the chapters of the book.
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Chapter 1: Aristotle, Plato and Kant
“The further back you can look, the further ahead you will see.” Winston Churchill.
“Knowledge comes from the comparison of clear and distinct ideas.” John Locke.
“Dialecticians and sophists, in their disquisitions, dress up as philosophers.” Aristotle.
“Philosophy is what distinguishes us from savages and barbarians; Nations are all the more civilized and cultured the better their men philosophize.” Rene Descartes.
“Philosophy is, according to the idea generally held of it, the study of first causes and principles.” Aristotle.
“The most important activity that a human being can achieve, is learning to understand, because understanding is being free.” Baruch Spinoza.
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Chapter 2: The Cultural Imprint
“The best wisdom is to know yourself.” Galileo.
“Self-knowledge is the first step to all wisdom.” Aristotle.
“When man does not find himself, he finds nothing.” Goethe.
“Simplicity and naturalness are the supreme and ultimate goal of culture.” Friedrich Nietzsche.
“Wisdom never says one thing and nature another.” Juvenal.
“We can only dominate nature if we obey it.” Francis Bacon.
“We can defy human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.” Julio Verne.
Chapter 3: Neurons and Consciousness
“Every man can be, if he sets his mind to it, a sculptor of his own brain.” Santiago Ramon y Cajal.
“There is nothing that we know that does not come from the perception of the senses, from the understanding of the soul and from the understanding of the mind.” Aristotle.
“All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions.” Leonardo da Vinci.
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“People only see what they are prepared to see.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“All men naturally have the desire to know. The pleasure that the perceptions of our senses cause us are a proof of this truth.” Aristotle.
“Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth, and that nothing can be more important than the act of perceiving it…”. Ayn Rand.
“We need to favour verifiable evidence over personal observations. Or we will make ourselves vulnerable to being obscured from the truth.” Richard Dawkins.
Chapter 4: The Irrationality of Denying Evidence
“Before you shake your head, make sure you have it.” Truman Capote.
“Reality is that which, even when you stop believing in it, continues to exist and does not disappear.” Philip K. Dick.
“You cannot escape tomorrow’s responsibility by evading it today.” Abraham Lincoln.
“Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you would like it to be.” Jack Welch.
“The human mind can’t take much of reality.” T. S. Eliot.
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“Only an educated mind can understand a thought different from his own without having to accept it.” Aristotle.
“You always have to face the reality of the situation, don’t fool yourself, don’t expect problems to be miraculously resolved.” Jack Welch.
“It is easier to deny things than to find out about them.” Mariano Jose de Larra.
“Reality is what exists, the unreal does not exist; the unreal is simply that denial of existence, which forms the content of human consciousness when it tries to stray from reason.” Ayn Rand.
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Chapter 5: Objective Metaphysics
“The wise man never says everything he thinks, but always thinks everything he says.” Aristotle.
“God is nothing except the power of the universe to organize itself.” Lee Smolin.
“Metaphysics must be based on what exists, since its main function is to explain reality.” Franz Grillparzer.
“The metaphysics of the philosophers is nothing more than common sense in intricate language.” Goethe.
“You cannot be and not be something at the same time and under the same aspect.” Aristotle.
“The only truth is reality”. Aristotle.
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a deep source of spirituality.” Carl Sagan.
“I exist, then I will think.” Ayn Rand.
Chapter 6: Objective Epistemology
“Knowledge cannot be a copy, since it is always a relationship between subject and object.” Jean Piaget.
“Just as iron rusts from lack of use, so inactivity destroys the intellect.” Leonardo da Vinci.
“The abundance of useless words is a certain symptom of mental inferiority.” Gustave Le Bon.
“Beware of false knowledge, it is more dangerous than ignorance.” George Bernard Shaw.
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Chapter 7: Reason
“Of two men equal in strength, the one who is right is the stronger.” Pythagoras.
“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” Voltaire.
“You can have fantasy as your companion, but you must have reason as your guide.” Samuel Johnson.
“Don’t judge anything by its appearance, but by the evidence. There is no better rule.” Charles Dickens.
“Think as the wise think, but speak as simple people speak.” Aristotle.
“Whoever does not want to think, is a fanatic; who cannot think, is an idiot; whoever does not dare to think, is a coward”. Sir Francis Bacon.
“Whoever does not resolve to cultivate the habit of thinking, misses out on life’s greatest pleasure.” Thomas Alva Edison.
“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.” Einstein.
“Thinking collectively is the general rule. Thinking individually is the exception”. Gustave LeBon.
“What is the most difficult task in the world? Think”. Emerson.
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“Learning without thinking is useless. Thinking without learning, dangerous.” Confucius.
“Those who think little are very wrong.” Leonardo da Vinci.
“The worst evil of man is thoughtlessness.” Sophocles.
Chapter 8: Life and Value
“Oh, how extemporaneous it is to start living when you have to stop living!” Seneca.
“Nature has given man nothing better than the brevity of his life.” Pliny the Elder.
“The gods envy us because we are mortal.” Homer.
“He who does not value life does not deserve it.” Leonardo da Vinci.
“Death is something we should not fear because, while we are, death is not, and when death is, we are not.” Antonio Machado.
“Just as a well-spent day brings sweet sleep, so a well-spent life brings sweet death.” Leonardo da Vinci.
“Death is only important to the extent that it makes us reflect on the value of life.” Andre Malraux.
“Love now while you live, since dead you will not be able to achieve it.” William Shakespeare.
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“I have meditated a lot on death and I find that it is the lesser of all evils.” Francis Bacon.
“Death will only be sad for those who have not thought about it.” Fenelon.
“The best thing is to leave life like a party, neither thirsty nor drunk.” Aristotle.
Chapter 9: The Morality of Reason
“Strength and mind are opposites. Morality ends where a gun begins.” Ayn Rand.
“We do not act in the right way because we have virtue or excellence, but we have these by having acted correctly.” Aristotle.
“Living in contradiction with one’s own reason is the most intolerable moral state.” Leo Tolstoy.
“Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living things, we are still wild.” Thomas A. Edison.
“Teaching superstitions as truth is a horrible thing.” Hypatia of Alexandria.
“Strive to think well; behold the principle of morality.” Blaise Pascal.
“The first punishment of the guilty is that he can never be acquitted by the court of his conscience.” Juvenal.
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“The most important human endeavour is to strive for morality in our actions. Our internal balance, and even our existence depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.” Albert Einstein.
“Nothing is more sacred than the integrity of your own mind.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.” Thomas Jefferson.
“My conscience has more weight for me than the opinion of the whole world.” Cicero.
Chapter 10: Real Self-Esteem
“The joy of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” Marcus Aurelius.
“Low self-esteem is like driving through life with the parking brake on.” Maxwell Maltz.
“A person cannot be comfortable without their own approval.” Mark Twain.
“The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.” Ayn Rand.
“Tell me how a person judges his self-esteem and I will tell you how that person acts at work, in love, in sex, as a parent, in every important aspect of his existence…, and how far his life can go. The idea that we forge of ourselves – our self-esteem – is the only factor of fundamental importance to achieve fulfilment.” Nathaniel Branden.
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“Descend into the depths of yourself, and get to see your good soul. Happiness is only made by oneself with good conduct.” Socrates.
“Loving yourself is the beginning of an adventure that lasts a lifetime.” Oscar Wilde.
“No one who trusts himself envy the virtue of the other.” Cicero.
“I committed the worst sin one can commit. I have not been happy.” Jorge Luis Borges.
“Men always forget that human happiness is a disposition of the mind and not a condition of circumstances.” John Locke.
“Dignity does not consist in our honours, but in the recognition of deserving what we have.” Aristotle.
“It is difficult to make a man miserable as long as he feels he is worthy of himself.” Abraham Lincoln.
Chapter 11: Objective Politics and Art
“I think banking institutions are more dangerous to our freedoms than armies.” Jefferson.
“You can fool everyone for some time. You can fool some all the time. But you can’t fool everyone all the time.” Abraham Lincoln.
“When the government fears the people, there is freedom. When people fear the government, there is tyranny.” Jefferson.
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“The painter will produce images of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.” Leonardo da Vinci.
“All our knowledge has its origin in our perceptions”. Leonardo da Vinci.
“Perfection is not a small thing, but it is made of small things.” Miguel Angel.
“The aim of art is to represent not the external appearance of things, but their inner meaning.” Aristotle.
“Although necessary for freedom, capitalism alone is not enough to guarantee it. It has to be accompanied by a set of values and political institutions favourable to freedom”. Milton Friedman.
“Capitalism has been the only system in history in which wealth has not been acquired through looting, but through production, not by force, but through trade, the only system that has defended the right of men to their own mind, their work, their life, themselves.” Ayn Rand.
“The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or literature, have never come from a central government.” Milton Friedman.
“Under the rule of law (…) the individual is free to pursue his goals and desires, with the guarantee that the powers of government will not be deliberately used to thwart his efforts.” Friedrich Hayek.
“The free man does not ask himself what his country can do for him, nor what he can do for his country.” Milton Friedman.
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Champion’s Constitution
“The Constitution is the guide which I will never abandon.” George Washington.
“It is every Americans right and obligation to read and interpret the Constitution for himself.” Thomas Jefferson
“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” Abraham Lincoln.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams. (By the way, this shows why Platonism corrupted reason in U.S.).
“All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.” Andrew Jackson.
“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defence are the constitutional rights secure.” Albert Einstein.
“The government was set to protect man from criminals, and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government.” Ayn Rand.
“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.” Samuel Adams.
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“The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.” Thomas Jefferson.
“Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.” Thomas Jefferson.
“What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws.” Alexander Hamilton.
“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.” Abraham Lincoln.
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” Michael Jordan.
“If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it.” Michael Jordan.
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” Muhammad Ali.
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“Any true champion can bounce back. That’s what being a champion is: being able to deal with adversity and being able to bounce back.” Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
“The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.” Plato.
“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.” Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“What is the single most important quality in a tennis champion? I would have to say desire, staying in there and winning matches when you are not playing that well.” John McEnroe.
“To be a champion requires more than simply being a strong player; one has to be a strong human being as well.” Anatoly Karpov.
“Take the feeling of hunger out of your gut, and you’re no longer a champion.” Burt Lancaster.
Leverage
“Give me a foothold and I will move the world.” Archimedes.
“What is not started today will never be finished tomorrow.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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“If you want to retire young and rich, you must understand the power of leverage.” Robert Kiyosaki.
“Only those who risk going far can find out how far they can go.” T. S. Eliot.
“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” Karen Lamb.
“Our goals can only be achieved through a plan, in which we must passionately believe. There is no other path to success.” Pablo Picasso.
“What you get by reaching your goals is not as important as what you become.” Henry David Thoreau.
“If you want to be happy, tie yourself to a goal, not to people or things.” Albert Einstein.
“If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you’re going to fail above everyone else’s success.” James Cameron.
“If a man does not know what port he is looking for, any wind is good.” Seneca.
“A goal is not always made to be achieved, many times it serves as something to aim for.” Bruce Lee.
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney.
“Goals are what keep me going.” Muhammad Ali.
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“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela.
“I don’t focus on what’s against me. I focus on my goals and try to ignore the rest.” Venus Williams.
“If you fight for your goals like there is no other option, the results will be incredible.” Awolumate Samuel.
“You are never too old to set a goal or dream a new dream.” CS Lewis.
Pay The Price
“The problem is that you think you have time.” Buddha.
“What doesn’t start today is never finished tomorrow.” Goethe.
“I hated every minute of training, but I said: Don’t give up… Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion…” Muhammad Ali.
“If you want to think like a Rolls-Royce, you need to pay like a Rolls-Royce.” Charles Kocian.
“Whatever you can do or dream, do it. Boldness is full of genius, power and magic.” Goethe.
“It’s hard to fall, but harder is never to have tried.” Theodore Roosevelt.
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“In 20 years, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did.” Mark Twain.
“Although we are optimistic, we must remain vigilant and maintain a sense of urgency.” Jeff Bezos.
“If necessity is the mother of invention, urgency is the uncle of change.” Nell Scovel.
“Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” Jim Rohn.
“The secret to getting ahead is to start.” Mark Twain.
“Even a right decision is wrong when taken too late.” Lee Iacocca.
“Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today”. Benjamin Franklin.
“Man, never knows what he is capable of until he tries.” Charles Dickens.
“Do you want to know who you are? Do not ask, act! Action will outline and define who you are.” Thomas Jefferson.
“Well done is better than well said.” Benjamin Franklin.
“In reality, living as a man means choosing a target -honor, glory, wealth, culture, and aiming towards it with all your conduct, since not ordering life to an end is a sign of great foolishness.” Aristotle.
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“If you’re not going to go all the way, why go?” Joe Namath.
“Act like what you do makes a big difference. It does.” William James.
“Fortune favours the bold.” Virgil.
“It is always the beginning that requires the most effort.” James Cash Penney.
“God gives each bird its food, but does not throw it into their nests.” JG Holland.
“I’ll forgive them if they don’t hit the mark, but not if they don’t make an effort.” Pep Guardiola.
Psychoepistemology
“Psycho-epistemology is the study of man’s cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious”. Ayn Rand.
“The subconscious has no mind of its own. It doesn’t make choices, it has no will, but some sort of information processing does go on below decks. And the issue is, whether you control it or let it go undirected.” Harry Binswanger.
“Volition is the choice to think or not to think, and that means to focus one’s mind or not. One’s basic moral responsibility, as you know, is to focus your mind. But what exactly is involved? You are directly responsible for using your conscious mind correctly. You are only partly indirectly responsible for the subconscious aspects.” Harry Binswanger.
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“Your subconscious is like a computer more complex a computer than man can build and its main function is the integration of your ideas. Who programs it? Your conscious mind. If you default, if you don’t reach any firm convictions, your subconscious is programmed by chance, and you deliver yourself into the power of ideas you do not know you have accepted. The ultimate programmer of this subconscious is philosophy”. Ayn Rand.
“An out-of-focus mind is one where, when it comes the time to file information to the subconscious, the boss is out for lunch. In a focused mind, the boss is there guiding everything. The skipper is at the helm.” Harry Binswanger.
“The choice to think or not means: the choice to focus your mind or not. And the choice to focus your mind or not means: the choice to manage your subconscious mind or not.” Harry Binswanger.
“Epistemological considering it, thinking is: a process of logical inference to identify reality in conceptual terms. Psycho-epistemologically considering it, thinking is: quite a big contrast… asking questions.” Harry Binswanger.
Strategy
“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.” Lee Bolman.
“Everything in strategy is very simple, but that does not mean everything is very easy.” Carl von Clausewitz.
“In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.” Aristotle.
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“What makes a man a ‘sophist’ is not his faculty, but his moral purpose.” Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric.
“There is nothing so practical as a good theory.” Kurt Lewin.
“Hope is not a strategy.” Vince Lombardi.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu.
“Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to succeed, but more importantly, what’s your plan to succeed?” Jim Rohn.
“The best strategy is always to be very strong.” Carl von Clausewitz.
“You have to be fast on your feet and adaptive or else a strategy is useless.” Charles de Gaulle.
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Winston Churchill.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” Leonardo Da Vinci.
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” Michael Porter.
“The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.” Carl von Clausewitz.
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Mind-Body Control Exercises
“Self-control – what lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.” Aristotle.
“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.” Charles Darwin.
“He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.” Friedrich Nietzsche.
“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.” Aristotle.
“I cannot trust a man to control others if he cannot control himself.” Robert E. Lee.
“Rule your mind or it will rule you.” Horace.
“He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.” John Milton.
“What man’s mind can create; man’s character can control.” Thomas Edison.
“The best fighter is never angry.” Lao Tzu.
“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” Tao Te Ching.
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“We should every night call ourselves to an account; What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.” Seneca
“You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself … the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment … And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.” Leonardo da Vinci.
“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies, for the hardest victory is victory over self.” Aristotle.
“The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him, and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires.” J. Paul Getty.
“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.” Gautama Buddha.
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“What a man’s mind can create; man’s character can control.” Thomas A. Edison.
“What you think you become.” Gautama Buddha.
“We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.” Edward Bernays.
“The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.” Thomas Jefferson.
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Champion’s Renaissance by Charles Kocian. Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.