Self Sacrafice Contradicts Capitalism

You cannot advocate the politics of self interest (which is what capitalism is) with the ethics of self sacrifice. - Craig Biddle


It is absolutely essential you understand what he is saying.


(Other posts on Thinking)

Start Your Do-It-Yourself Project Early

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project. - Napoleon Hill


Educate your kids better than that.


(Other posts on Life)

So You Want a Faster Horse......

If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me "A faster horse. - Henry Ford


Don't give your customers what they think they want, give them what you know they won't be able to live without.


(Other posts on Customers)

Play or Be Played

Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. - Ralph Charell


The chess player can fail or win. The chess piece can do neither.


(Other posts on Achievement)

Your Plan

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire. - Napoleon Hill


It is alway better to deal with concrete reality than the ethereal.


(Other posts on Business)

Saying What You Thought

Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much. - Peter Ustinov


If you are going to say what you think be sure you have thought about it.


(Other posts about Thinking)

Practical Politics

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. - H. L. Mencken


Yup, that's practical politics. What we need is principled politics.


(Other posts on Government)

Coming Through!

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going. - Napoleon Hill 


Is that why the huckster's bluff is seldom called?


(Other posts on Achievement)

Victory or Defeat

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. - Napoleon Hill

Defeat requires submission.

(Other posts on Losing)

Honor

Honor is self-esteem made visible in action. - Ayn Rand


I ran across this quote the other day and it started me thinking. First to define Honor in dictionary terms:

Dignity. Reputation. Dignified respect of character springing from probity (integrity, honesty),  principle, or moral rectitude (moral uprightness). 

It seems to me we don't use the concept or the word much these days. When was the last time you heard a politician use the word about themselves or a colleague? If they did I think they would be judged as "impractical" or "naive." I myself have been told many times "Oh, come on be practical" when trying to argue a point on moral grounds. The implication is we cannot know what is moral or not so we judge whether to do something on its practicability. So let's see where that takes us if we assume Miss Rand is correct.

If honor is self-esteem in action would you not assume that not acting honorably would damage your self-esteem? Note that I am using the word "self-esteem" in the "self-respect" sense not in the sense it is sometimes used where it refers to an unwarranted or undeserved self image. Isn't any damage done to your self-respect a slippery slope to personal disaster? Think about this the next time you decide to do something because it is the "practical" thing to do. Perhaps you should consider if it is the honorable thing to do.

New Ideas

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. - Henry David Thoreau


Pretty, unless you are writing about new ideas. Poor ol' Henry wasn't much into new ideas.


(Other posts on Writing)

Freedom's Importance

For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail? - Ralph Waldo Emerson


Thank you, Ralph, for reminding us how important freedom is; we stand on the precipice of losing a bunch of it.


(Other posts on Freedom)

Zoom, Zoom

Cars are not for showing how far you've come, but for taking you where you want to go. - Allstate Commercial


Having a nice car (or fancy office) will not make you successful. Have them after you are.


(Other posts on Success)

Keeping Cool

I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum. - Frances Willard


Friction converts energy into heat.


(Other posts on Negativity)

Say what?

If atheism is a religion then not collecting stamps is a hobby. - Amy Alkon


If healthcare is a right then not wanting healthcare is also a right. So much for Universal coverage.
(Check your premises)


(Other posts o Logic)

Climb a Mountain or...?

Why do writers write? Because it isn't there. - Thomas Berger


The difference between creating and conquering. 

Successful Relationships

The formula for achieving a successful relationship is simple: you should treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but never treat a triviality as if it were a disaster. - Quentin Crisp


No matter what, remain calm.


(Other posts on Adversity)

Take a Walk

If you don't like the way someone is acting, understand you can't change his behavior, you can only change his circumstances. - Seth Godin


...or your circumstances. Look somewhere else and forget them.


(Other posts on Change)