Inspirational Quotes 94

We make judgments in split seconds:
Is this person a threat?
Is this person attractive?
Is this person useful to my (social) survival?
(lifehack.org. Pic from Whitehorn's Social Survival.)

Ethics are principles from which moral rules can be derived. (Although historically it worked the other way round - ethical principles were generalisations of moral rules.) (RK)

Defenders make their choice by group loyalty and buttress it with principle, not vice versa. (Andrew Brown, paraphrase)

You try to create a social world where you’re comfortable, where you succeed, where you have people you can trust and with whom you can co-operate to meet your goals. To create this, similarity is very useful. (Chris Crandall, Uni of Kansas)

The nature of the work - on a movie, a play, a series - it’s over and everyone goes their own way and you’re the best of friends during that moment. (William Shatner)

In a new group I have to ask myself/the host "where is the line, how bland do I need to be?" (AS)

It's like moving to a new city: you have to give yourself time to find your way, get acclimatised and discover where you fit in. (Nick Vujicic)

We all have a need to think well of ourselves, and for others to think well of us... we expend huge amounts of time and effort maintaining and protecting our self-image. The flipside... is our dread of humiliation... One study showed that “social pain” activated the same circuits of the brain as physical pain. (Paul Randolph, Observer  2016)

Over the years many friendships have simply evolved into acquaintances. (FB cut and paste lore)

Bret Harte published his first work at age 11, a satirical poem titled "Autumn Musings," now lost. Rather than attracting praise, the poem resulted in his family's ridicule. As an adult, he recalled to a friend, "Such a shock was their ridicule to me that I wonder that I ever wrote another line of verse." (Amazon. His stories and verses became enormously popular.)

Whereas mental health professionals often think of it in terms of recovery from symptoms, patients more often emphasise the importance of self-esteem, hope for the future, and a valued role in society... Arguably the biggest cause of human misery is miserable relationships with other people, conducted in miserable circumstances. (Richard Bentall Guardian Feb 2016-02-27)

Pretending you don’t have feelings of anger, sadness or loneliness can literally destroy you mentally. (@madfactz)

It's amazing how many things "aren't difficult" when you have no idea what you're talking about. (Julian Sanchez ‏@normative)

People will kill you over time, and how they’ll kill you is with tiny, harmless phrases, like “be realistic”. (Dylan Moran)

I definitely think about what I’m going to say before I say it, because I do feel that I’m more likely to offend just by being female and having a strong opinion on something. (Screewriter Katie Dippold)

Conservatives "traumatised" by people calling a bigot a bigot. (Sabine ‏@ThatSabineGirl)


Once stars and their people realise that you are professional and you aren't going to start asking for autographs or behaving as if the star is your new best friend ... then they're happy to keep using you... I've also trained as a make-up artist as a preparation for the future - showbusiness is precarious and it's sensible to have a plan B. (Model who works as body double)

I don’t want to become someone sanctimonious who tuts at teenagers drinking alcopops; neither do I want to talk in therapy platitudes nor acquire the evangelical tone of voice I know from church preachers. (Amy Liptrot)

Jack Warner built a house for his wife that resembled a white Southern mansion and left her there to shrivel and die. “She acted her life like a scene from Gone with the Wind.”... Jane, like many Hollywood girls, was plainer than her mother. [Someone was] hired to take her on outings... Stein says that she and her sister were treated “like props”. (Andrew O’Hagan on Jean Stein's Hollywood exposé West of Eden)

Nominally Isabelle’s an independent film producer, though in reality she’s an ex-cokehead on a trust fund. (I Love Dick, Chris Kraus)

Woman who posts endless 'Mums like wine/My kids drive me mad' on FB is resharing old ones as 'Memories'. (@redskyatnight)

Conciliation makes the conciliated more aware of the effectiveness of their bad behaviour so consequently they increase it. (Elizabeth Jane Howard)

When you criticise cultural trends people have a tendency to say 'who thinks like that?' (@KarlreMarks. Or “I don’t know anybody like that”. Or “I never heard that”. Or even "I just ignore people like that.")

Poverty is not a character failing or a lack of motivation. Poverty is a shortage of money. (Barbara Ehrenreich)

More here, and links to the rest.