Perrymecium

Anyone can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not easy.

-Aristotle

Don’t bother me with facts, son. I’ve already made up my mind.

-Foghorn Leghorn

Science trivia: Psychologists now generally agree that the key to change is to create an emotional stimulus; not because people are stupid, but because the human brain is designed to use logic to support our emotional beliefs, not change them. So what you want is an emotional rationale to change, concrete data to back up your progress, and a supportive environment for the new you. Keep in mind that none of this is a breakthrough – politicians have been doing it since the days of Pericles.

It is certain that intuition can be trained and developed. The bewildered novice in chess moves cautiously, recalling individual rules, whereas the experienced player absorbs a complicated situation at a glance and is unable to account rationally for his intuition.

-William Feller

Bonus trivia: Feller is one of the few mathematicians outside of the Soviet Union to appreciate the importance of probability theory, and his texts popularized its study in the United States. He also fled Germany in 1933 after refusing to sign a Nazi oath, so maybe he did know a thing or two about probability. HEYO.

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.

-Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Bonus trivia: Bulwer-Lytton coined the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword” and the introductory line “it was a dark and stormy night”.

In regards to bringing syndication loans to Japan:

The first was Citibank, absolutely. But Citibank could never be considered as the pioneering deal of syndication because they didn’t explain it in that way; they didn’t call it that. What I did was main stream. Sometimes, doing the deal is not important; the record that you did a deal each year is not important. How that deal affected the entire market, how that deal gave imagination to the people, that is more important, that’s the key. They might insist: “We did the first syndicated finance”. So what? Whatever they did, it did not have a significant impact on society. And it’s the impact on society that counts.

-Shusaku Minoda, from “The Paradox of Foreignness” by Jesper Edman

You wrote to me once, listing the four chief virtues. Wisdom, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. As I read the list I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, father. Ambition, that can be a virtue when it drives us to excel. Resourcefulness. Courage. Perhaps not on the battlefield, but there are many forms of courage. Devotion, to my family, to you. But none of my virtues were on your list.

-Commodus, Gladiator

I’ve been motivated by overcoming challenge and overcoming the hurdles and obstacles that face me. There still is plenty out there to get motivated by.

-Andre Agassi

If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark.

-Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so.

-Robert Heinlein

Someone once told me that the worst sin is fear. God hates a coward.

-Batman