Ask Lemmy

It a saying from Ubuntu (the philosophy not the operating system) “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” in English it’s “I am because you are” It’s a simple and concrete way of saying how we’re not judged by how we treat others but we are who we are through our interactions with others.

Honestly I’ve only browsed through a bit of philosophy and I’m sure I missing a heap but it really struck me.

If the penalty for breaking a law is a fine, that law only exists for poor people.

"Things in life aren't always quite what they seem, there's more than one given angle to any one given scene. So bear that in mind next time you try to intervene on any one given angle to any one given scene."

Seek to understand, then be understood.

I used to think of myself as a complete pacifist, but these words haven't left my mind since I heard them:

You think you're better than everyone else, but there you stand: the good man doing nothing. And while evil triumphs and your rigid pacifism crumbles into bloodstained dust, the only victory afforded to you is that you stuck true to your guns.

Of course this only applies to defense, never to offense (especially "preemptive defense"), but I can't really argue against it.

Housing can't be both affordable and a good investment.

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

Hurt people hurt people.

"Know your worth."

I've struggled with self-worth my whole life and I'm finally taking a stand for myself both in my professional and personal life. It feels great tbh.

Choose your rut carefully.

"It is possible to make no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness. That is life."

-Captain Jean-Luc Picard

We thought of life by analogy was a journey, was a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end. And the thing was to get to that end.

Success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you're dead.

But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing, and you were supposed to sing, or to dance, while the music was being played

-- Alan Watts

This kind of question always immediately makes me think of something a friend said years ago when I was still a teen. We were talking about school and education and shit and it was on the subject of asking questions when you don't fully understand something and he said "rather ask a stupid question and be a fool for five minutes, then keep your mouth shut and be a fool for the rest of your life." I think it was something that his mother had told him, in their language, so I'm constructing that statement from memory but it was something close to that.

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

In my language it goes : "Alone you go faster, together you go further".

"It's not your fault, but it is your problem."

I honestly love and repeat this line way too much

Just because you weren't the cause doesn't mean it isn't something you need to worry about/fix. I learned this one from my high school English teacher when a student was late and tried to get out of it by blaming traffic lol. The traffic was not their fault, but it ended up being their problem.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it

Unfortunately, too many people have been trained to reject ideas or thoughts without first thinking them through. Many simply react to whatever word, expression, or concept triggers them without giving the rest a second thought. For example a brilliant idea can be presented online, but if one word is out of place, the usage of that word will debated instead of the idea.

There's this quote attributed to Rabbi Yisrael Salanter:

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

There are two lessons here. First - the best way to affect meaningful change is to start local. Rather than spending a lot of time agonizing over national politics, get involved in your community - your neighborhood, your town, your apartment building, even just the house you share with your family. Your community will take better care of you and the other people that you care about than any national government ever will.

Second - ultimately the only person whose behavior you can change is your own. Don't be too harsh with other people when they don't behave the way that you believe they should. Be a more stringent judge of your own behavior.

But temper that with this:

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much. Or berate yourself too much either.

Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Baz Lurhmann

You can't help people that don't want help.

Goes for people who are going through mental/physical health problems or substance abuse issues. If they don't want help you have to accept that and be there for them when they do.

'Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle'

Sometimes that grumpy old man really is just having a bad day.

Seriously though:

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. — Douglas Adams

Choosing means losing a little, said by a teacher in highschool when I was struggling to decide what to do after I'd graduate, still remember it 12 years later

Just because two sides are fighting doesn't mean one side is good (something along this line)

... I don't think it is that profound, but I think about it a lot