Quotes & Notes

Quotes

"Edison’s electric light did not come about from the continuous improvement of the candle"
-- Oren Harari

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they’d have told me ‘a faster horse’!"
-- Henry Ford.

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
-- Albert Einstein

“Innovation is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
-- Thomas Edison

''People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they can't find them, make them.''
-- George Bernard Shaw, from Mrs Warren's Profession

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world."
-- George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken

-- Oscar Wilde    

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!”
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too.”
― W.H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951

"Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid."
-- Dorothea Brande, American writer and editor

"It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour."
-- Charles Dickens, British author

"I think making mistakes and discovering them for yourself is of great value, but to have someone else to point out your mistakes is a shortcut of the process."
-- Shelby Foote, American historian and novelist

"Ability will never catch up with the demand for it."
-- Confucius, Chinese philosopher

"Folks today have ... got this idea that self-respect means 'I am a terrific person. I am wonderful. Me, me, me.' That's not self-respect; that's vanity."
-- Bessie Delany, American dentist and civil rights pioneer

"The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once."
-- Samuel Smiles

"Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the tea break."
-- Earl Wilson

"All the strength you need to achieve anything is within you."
-- Sara Henderson

"Children think not of what is past, nor what is to come, but enjoy the present time, which few of us do."
-- Jean de la Bruyere

"It's better to regret the things you did than regret the things you didn't do."
-- Randall Lane

"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be, be one."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor

"A true teacher defends his students against his own personal influences."
-- Amos Bronson Alcott, American teacher, writer and philosopher

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
-- Albert Einstein

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

-- Les Brown

Smart Men Go Broke From 'Ladies, Liquor, And Leverage'
-- Charlie Munger
—But Warren Buffett Says Only One Of Those Will Actually Take You Down
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/charlie-munger-said-smart-men-134606248.html?

"If you apply an inquisitive mind to any task, it will always become interesting."
-- Me!

Insights

Milton Friedman on Spending Someone Else's Money

“There are four ways in which you can spend money.

You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.

Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.

Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch!

Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBWXuptwJpg

Jimmy Carr "Define communism for me!"

From each according to their abilities.
To each according to their needs.
Everyone is a communist...it just doesn't scale.
All of us are communists...with our families.
If you've got kids, each according to their needs - you take care of them.
In the local community...you become a socialist.
Try and help everyone out.
A Nation State level....
hmmm, yeah, F those guys.

https://youtu.be/zMmjKRettxA?si=2JjEbTYx54opNDcL

Unattributed 

"Action may not always bring happiness,
but there is no happiness without action".

"Coming together is a beginning;
Keeping together is progress;
Working together is success."

"If you're unhappy, nine times out of ten it's because you're clinging onto something.
Nine times out of ten, happiness and letting go are synonymous."

Humour

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
Sir Winston Churchill

“Mr. Churchill, if you were my husband, I’d poison your tea!”
“And if you were my wife, I would drink it.”
Sir Winston Churchill

“You are drunk Sir Winston, you are disgustingly drunk.”
“Yes, Mrs. Braddock, I am drunk. But you, Mrs. Braddock are ugly and disgustingly fat. But tomorrow morning I, Winston Churchill, will be sober.”
Sir Winston Churchill

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.
Jack Handey

Other Noteworthy Notes

Davos 2026: Special address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/davos-2026-special-address-by-mark-carney-prime-minister-of-canada/