"People want to think there is some huge conspiracy run by evil geniuses. The reality is actually much more horrifying. The people running the show aren't evil geniuses. They are just as stupid as the rest of us."
-- Vaksel
"Rule of thumb: Be skeptical of things you learned before you could read. E.g., religion."
-- Ben Casnocha
"Truth is not always popular, but it is always right."
-- Anon
"Computer programming is omnipotence without omniscience."
-- Prospero
"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good, and the very gentle, and the very brave, impartially."
-- Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
"Those who take delight in their own might are merely pretenders to power. The true warrior of fate needs no adoration or fear, no tricks or overwhelming effort; he need not be stronger or smarter or innately more capable than everyone else; he need not even admit it to himself. All he needs to do is to stand there, at that moment when all hope is dead, and look upon the abyss without flinching."
-- Shinji and Warhammer40k
"Though here at journey's end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars forever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell."
-- Banazîr Galbasi (Samwise Gamgee), The Return of the King
Oh, gawd. "Look upon the abyss without flinching". All that Nobility. You make it sound impossible, and it does indeed seem so: but it is very simple. A translation for normal life:
All the human being need do is see what needs to be done, and do it.