Quote of the Day: 22 January 2025 #QotD

“The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given.” -Magnifico Giganticus, Foundation and Empire
[I don't know what the actual number is. It's not terribly important. But our brains are so energy intensive that we only use a portion of them at any given moment as an energy efficiency feature. So, we have a brain optimized for power consumption and performing sufficiently well at all necessary tasks.]

Quote of the Day: 21 January 2025 #QotD

“Everything’s gotta have rules, rules, rules!” -Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

[I know the Pup feels this way. And sometimes I do too.]

Quote of the Day: 20 January 2025 #QotD

“A well-trained mind is a necessity for any job—from car repair person to university teacher.” -Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
[One would hope this would apply to a certain individual beginning a particular job today. However, that hope is likely vain.]

Quote of the Day: 19 January 2025 #QotD

“Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority.” -Russell M. Nelson

Quote of the Day: 18 January 2025 #QotD

“You can’t trust a man what doesn’t smell like a man should.” -Wayne Ferrisborn, The Lost Metal
[There are some that find this a hard and fast rule. Others find it a reliable guideline. I'm not certain where I come down on it.]

Quote of the Day: 17 January 2025 #QotD

“He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it—SOME.” -Pollyanna Whittier, Pollyanna
[Things certainly seem better when you're focused on the positive aspects of things.]

Quote of the Day: 16 January 2025 #QotD

“You can’t escape the past, Lukan. It’s our lifelong companion, always at our side.” -Shafia, The Silverblood Promise
[Rather self explanatory. We all have pasts. And they travel with us. But they don't define who we can become. Only where we have come from.]

Quote of the Day: 15 January 2025 #QotD

“The confiscation and redistribution of wealth—whether on a moderate or a comprehensive scale—is at the heart of the social justice agenda. While social justice advocates stress what they see as the desirability of such policies, the feasibility of those policies tends to receive far less attention, and the consequences of trying and failing often receive virtually no attention.” -Thomas Sowell
[Probably because the consequences are largely unimportant to those who would like to implement the policies. They're more interested in the emotional catharsis of getting the policy passed.]

Quote of the Day: 14 January 2025 #QotD

“Moral pluralism is true descriptively. As a simple matter of anthropological fact, the moral domain varies across cultures.” -Jonathan Haidt
[This is just a statement that different cultures have different moral frameworks. It says nothing about which moral framework, if any, is correct.]

Quote of the Day: 13 January 2025 #QotD

“Do you ever feel like we aren’t getting the future we were promised, but we are getting the one we were threatened with[?]” -Rick, Basic Instructions
[Frankly, yes. And I'm not a big fan of some of it. The rest is alright.]

Quote of the Day: 12 January 2025 #QotD

“Fill your life with positive, righteous ideas; be joyful; have fun but avoid foolishness. There is a difference.” -Quentin L. Cook

Quote of the Day: 11 January 2025 #QotD

“[C]leverness kills wisdom; that is one of the few sad and certain things.” -G. K. Chesterton
[There are so many instances of clever people falling in love with foolish ideas because they appear clever. Never mind the ideas that have already been shown to be failures that these folks are convinced should be possible anyway.]

Quote of the Day: 10 January 2025 #QotD

“You’re in America now. Our idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you’d prefer.” -Harry Dresden, Turn Coat
[When I first read this I found it amusing, or even funny. Now, it seems a bit more realistic, while retaining the humor.]

Quote of the Day: 9 January 2025 #QotD

“Yes. The ATF actually tried to say that holding something wrong was a felony.” -Larry Correia
[But then, can you really trust the ATF about anything? They're as likely to lie to you as to tell the truth, and even if you get a true answer, they still might change their mind on you and turn you into a felon overnight without your knowledge.]

Quote of the Day: 8 January 2025 #QotD

“I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being – forgive me – rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.” -Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[Cleverness is not the same thing as wisdom, and clever folks are as likely to end up being wrong as most other people, just with far more impactful errors.]

Quote of the Day: 7 January 2025 #QotD

“As they keep telling you in Basic, doing something constructive at once is better than figuring out the best thing to do hours later.” -Cpl. Juan Rico (thought), Starship Troopers
[Decisive action, that isn't optimal, is still better than no action or even delayed action that is otherwise optimal.]

Quote of the Day: 6 January 2025 #QotD

“Tears released poisons from inside, poisons which if not released could be as deadly as the real kind.” -Tom Clancy
[Repressing your negative emotions is not healthy. It'll lead you to dangerous ends.]

Quote of the Day: 5 January 2025 #QotD

“We all need to be lifted up by the Lord with peace, with comfort, and most of all with personal revelation to counter the fear, darkness, and contention encompassing the world.” -Ronald A. Rasband

Quote of the Day: 4 January 2025 #QotD

“He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt[.]” -Joseph Heller
[Sometimes, you just have to spit in the face of reality and attempt to actualize a new reality.]

Quote of the Day: 3 January 2025 #QotD

“Perhaps denial of mass atrocity is tied to our innate resistance to killing.” -Dave Grossman
[Perhaps, or perhaps it is that we don't wish to think that a human is capable of such things so that we don't think that we are capable of those things.]

Quote of the Day: 2 January 2025 #QotD

“[R]aising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place.” -Ian Malcolm, The Lost World
[So, how do we structure society to best meet that end? We ought to support parents in making decisions about their children and encourage people to have children in the first place. But, that certainly doesn't mean that we socialize parenthood.]

Quote of the Day: 1 January 2025 #QotD

“We are the stories we tell to ourselves. Nothing more.” -Livira, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
[Happy New Year!

Since this is a time of new beginnings, perhaps consider what story you're telling yourself about yourself, and whether that's the story you really want to be telling.]