Some Thoughts

From the Simple Dollar blog:

• Walter Elliott on perseverance The hardest challenges in life seem like incredibly long slogs through difficult terrain. However, almost all things can be conquered if you focus on nothing more than today. “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.” – Walter Elliott Accomplish what you need to accomplish today. Don’t let the fear of what tomorrow might hold keep you from doing it.
• Derrick Jensen on hope and effort It’s easy to feel trapped by circumstance and locked into the rut of our day to day life. “When we realize the degree of agency we actually do have, we no longer have to “hope” at all. We simply do the work.” – Derrick Jensen In so many ways, though, we’re free to follow whatever path we want. We just have to be willing to work hard for it.
• Ken Olson on the uselessness of computers It’s pretty easy to take a quote from the past and use it to make someone look foolish. What you always have to remember is the time they lived in. “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” – Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corporation In 1977, there was no reason for people to have a computer at home. Today, they’re nearly ubiquitous and incredibly useful. Perspectives change, and the views of the past aren’t always correct for today.
• Carl Sagan on looking at reality We all have ideas of how the world should work. But that’s not how the world does work. “Whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. We must understand the Cosmos as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.” – Carl Sagan It takes strength of mind and strength of character to distinguish between the two.
• Hegel on good and great To toss aside something good because it is not perfect is a mistake. “Perfection is the enemy of the good.” (“Le plus grand ennemi du bon, c’est le mieux.”) – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Our lives are filled with good things. Never overlook them.