Small Practical Heresies

People often insist on priestifying simple things and tying them to higher secrets. Why should the reason for growing a beard, for example, not simply be: so you do not tire yourself shaving it?

When buying clothes or furniture, I always find that people focus on making “what is elegant” more than “what is comfortable.”

The father: “The king asked Clever Hasan for bird’s milk so he could marry him to the princess. What should Clever Hasan do?” The child: “Marry someone else.”

Move through all speech contemplatively, and do not move seeking miracles.

For some reason I feel that lower-quality products are always the ones that receive a higher degree of marketing.

We were in a meeting wondering how much money Howard Hughes left when he died, and the sayings and estimates multiplied, until someone said, “He left all of it.” Everyone fell silent after that. Zig Ziglar.

Disbelief is a way of thinking, not a behavior. That is why you find a believer in thought who is an unbeliever in conduct, an unbeliever in thought who is a believer in conduct, and spectra between them.

A slave’s escape from slavery is to become free, not to become a slave trader. A poor person’s escape from poverty is to become sufficient, not rich. A fool’s escape from folly is, at least, to spare himself the harm of his folly if he remains a fool, or to become wise. There is no middle line between wisdom and folly.

If you must choose between the prophet, the fool, and the accursed, do not rush; the prophet is certainly a pretender or deluded.

The hardest effort: smashing intellectual idols It requires civilization The greatest idol fools worship: money The second idol: seeking others’ approval and impressing them The third idol: following imagination and building in the air The fourth idol: love of vying in lofty buildings

The only way to predict the future: cause it.

The reasonable one does not leave his hand in the hole The believer is not stung from the same hole twice The cunning one pushes others to put their hands in the hole first