lavalamp comments on Rationality Quotes - June 2009 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: pjeby 14 June 2009 10:00PM

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Comment author: lavalamp 15 June 2009 06:33:39PM *  1 point [-]

I can't speak for others, but I find the value of a quote to be almost completely independent of its originator. (exception being when the originator is someone like Hitler; that's a short list, though)

I'm not a fan of this particular quote, though, because I can't tell if it's sarcastic or serious. (I've never played the lottery, but I wouldn't expect it to make me feel rich; voting doesn't make me feel powerful. I'm just not sure what it's attempting to communicate.)

EDIT: what orthonormal said. Also, before anyone docks me for the same reason, the reason I would refrain from quoting Hitler (assuming he ever said anything worth quoting) is because I know that many, many other people can't separate ideas from sources. Plus why would I be reading Mien Kampf??

Comment author: CronoDAS 15 June 2009 11:50:28PM 0 points [-]

exception being when the originator is someone like Hitler; that's a short list, though

Hmmm...

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." - Mao Zedong

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 16 June 2009 01:59:44AM 8 points [-]

"The people who are already born into money never know a real struggle, and for the others so often this struggle is so hard that it kills all pity. Our own painful struggle, that the selfish say we need, destroys our feelings for the misery we cause on our rise to become this so called success. I was forced back into a world of material insecurity, this fact has removed the curtain of this narrow minded and selfish world, and after reading, writing, searching, and questioning, that I may not have been able to do if distracted by the relentless pursuit of material wealth that seems to be the driving force in most people's lives, did I truly come to know humanity...

"I don't know what is worse, intention to social misery or inattention to it. We see both everyday among those who have been favored in fortune by birth or luck, or those who have risen to it by their own efforts. Or else the snobs, or at times the tactless and obtrusive condescension of the social elite who apparently 'feel' for the people. In any case these people sin against moral justice farther than their narrow little minds and twisted hearts are probably even capable of understanding or feeling. Consequently and much to their amazement, the results of their pathetic social charity efforts is next to nil, frequently infact an indignant rebuf, though this is passed off by them as proof of the ingratitude of the 'lazy street bums', that they themselves are partly responsible for helping to create in the first place."

-- Adolf Hitler

Comment author: RichardKennaway 16 June 2009 08:12:34PM 0 points [-]

I tagged that as a loser's rant of resentment before I scrolled far enough to reveal the name (although it wasn't a surprise given the comment it is a reply to). If I'd read it on someone's blog, I wouldn't bother with anything else they wrote.

Comment author: MichaelBishop 15 June 2009 07:08:56PM 0 points [-]

Thanks for your reply, since you liked the way orthonormal put it better, I responded to his reply. Please see it.

Comment author: timtyler 17 June 2009 08:41:32AM 0 points [-]

I find the value of a quote to be highly dependent on the identity of its originator.

This allows me to quickly filter out all kinds of nonsense by known idiots - for example by using killfiles.

Surely you guys are not claiming that there is no correlation between author and value! That would seem like "everyone's equal" political correctness taken to extremes!

Comment author: lavalamp 17 June 2009 03:12:38PM 1 point [-]

I agree, if we're talking about books. Further, I agree that some people are way better at making good quotes than others.

But even a broken clock is right twice a day-- and if someone has taken the trouble to excerpt a quote from an author (i.e., they have pre-filtered it for me), it does not take me significantly more time to read the quote than it does to verify that I like the originator. (Unless I know I'm unlikely to agree with the aesthetics of the person who made the excerpt, but that's a different story entirely!)

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