“A little bit of science distances you from God. A lot brings you closer.” – Louis Pasteur. Exposure to science and its orderly way of thinking and explaining nature can give one false confidence that we know or eventually will know all the answers. Exposure to a lot brings the clear understanding that we don’t even know the right questions to ask.
“Cemeteries are full of indispensable men.” – Charles De Gaulle. True, and with three lessons: (1) Only fools depend completely on any one person, (2) you are not as important as you think, and (3) always have a backup plan for your people, not just your actions.
“To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.” – Charles De Gaulle. This gets to the essence of democracy. We nearly always agree on what we want but disagree so often on what side effects we are willing to live with to get that.
“Eventually, new technologies are not used for noble purposes, but trivialized.” This quote is a paraphrase of statements by both Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and Arthur C. Clarke (The Exploration of Space, Childhood’s End). For example, digital computers were first looked on with hope for their potential contributions to medicine, weather forecasting, and business success, but today most of what they do is disseminate misinformation and piffle, or show cat pictures or pornography.
“Plans are worthless, but planning is priceless.” – Dwight Eisenhower. This paraphrases several comments the future President made while Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in WWII. His point was similar to Clausewitz’s famous maxim, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Plans are worthless at that point, but the person who has done the planning will know what could be expected and not, what could be done and not, and why and how, and would know how to react. The one who had not planned would not.
“Quantity has its own unique quality.” – Joseph Stalin. Stalin purportedly said this when his generals complained that German tanks were far superior to what they had (early in WWII). He agreed with them, but pointed out they had many more of those poorer tanks, so told them to deal with it. They did, costly and bloody as the results were.
“Sometimes half measures produce more than half results.” – Lee Willis. This is my own quote, a twist on the old “80–20” rule: one gets the first eighty percent of the benefit for only the first twenty percent of the cost. This means that using two partial measures to solve a problem often delivers more result for less cost than using any one fully would. You see this in medicine a lot. And in 57 years in the power industry, this was always my first go-to way to try to solve a difficult problem.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke. Our imagination, constrained by what we have seen and are familiar with, is not a useful guide for thinking about what will be. Science can tell us what is impossible, but within those constraints, the future will seem like magic.
“A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God.” (The Christian Apostle Paul, in 1 Timothy 6:6 – The Message). Three quarters of a century among humans has convinced me that living by the precepts of any of the great religions makes one a better person and brings more happiness, contentment, and good fortune than not. All the great religions have their quotes saying this, but I like Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Apostle Paul (The Message) best.
“The thing that doesn’t fit is what is most interesting.” – Richard Feynman. One should study what one does not understand, and what does not “make sense.” You will learn more, and as an added bonus, in your struggles with that, develop better skills for learning itself.