Ask HN: What are your favorite sayings?

"Just do what's in front of your nose." — Henry Miller

I talked to my dad about this a few years later, asking if he had any regrets or reservations about giving up on his dream of a beachside mansion (Something he had talked about for as long I can remember). I'll never forget what he said to me then and I oft remind myself of it. He said to me,

"Sometimes our dreams are the wrong dreams."

I'm not afraid of failure; I'm afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter. - William Carey

You can pick your sins, but you can't pick the consequences. - Darryl Strawberry

People change their rulers willingly, hoping to better themselves [...] are deceiving themselves, because they afterwards find by experience they have gone from bad to worse. /Machiavelli/

Every shitty product finds its shitty consumer. /my dad/

Basically, he's saying that while learning from your own mistakes is impactful, it's smarter to read/watch/listen so you can learn from others' mistakes instead. I think it's one of the wisest sayings, because people who haven't internalized this lesson are largely incapable of heeding any other advice anyway.

-My Mom

I was climbing in the desert with a friend once, and we headed out to a Thai restaurant in a small town for dinner afterwards. He reached for his wallet after dinner and a small paper with those words on it fell onto the table. I asked him about it, and he said that was the advice his grandfather always gave him. Those words are now posted on my classroom door.

Cato the Elder

I like this quote because it reminds me not to argue needlesly.

See yesterday's submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12483952 and

and this quote from Dale Carnegie:

Why prove to a man he is wrong? Is that going to make him like you? Why not let him save face? He didn't ask for your opinion. He didn't want it. Why argue with him? You can't win an argument, because if you lose, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it. Why? You will feel fine. But what about him? You have made him feel inferior, you hurt his pride, insult his intelligence, his judgment, and his self-respect, and he'll resent your triumph. That will make him strike back, but it will never make him want to change his mind. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. --Dale Carnegie

― Niccolò Machiavelli

“To hell with your cancer. I’ve been living with cancer for the better part of a year. Right from the start, it’s a death sentence. That’s what they keep telling me. Well, guess what? Every life comes with a death sentence. So every few months I come in here for my regular scan, knowing full well that one of these times – hell, maybe even today – I’m gonna hear some bad news. But until then, who’s in charge? Me. That’s how I live my life.”

– Walter White

“You ask me if an ordinary person by studying hard would get to be able to imagine these things like I imagine. Of course! I was an ordinary person who studied hard. There is no miracle people."

– Richard Feynman

I think that the so-called "work/life balance" is different for different people at different stages of life. This quote reminds me to pursue my vision of excellence as guided by my stage in life.

Forget injuries, never forget kindness. -Confucius

Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something. —H. Jackson Brown Jr.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. —Winston Churchill

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. —Stephen Hawking

The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all. —Mulan

I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying. —Michael Jordan

Energy flows where attention goes