For me, a few come to mind:
- “You’re imagining everybody in this story way more attractive than they actually were.”
It was posted somewhere on one of those spicy subreddits under some affair threesome story. And it sort if clicked with me. Like look around, normal people on the street don’t all look like supermodels. And supermodels don’t lurk around in reddit comment sections. It really put things into perspective for me.
- “Life isn’t short, it’s the longest thing you’ll ever do.”
It is a bit uplifting to realize that no matter if you have bad or good period in your life, it is only a short chapter contained in the longest time period possible for you to experience.
There were a few others that I probably can’t remember of the top of my head right now.
The only peace you will find at the top of a mountain is the peace you bring there with yourself.
the ironic thing about common sense is that it is not that common.
There’s a guy on Youtube by the name of Chris Boden. Slightly controversial figure but he seems to mean well. A video of his that seemed to be venting/reconciling himself included the phrase
“So you wake up one morning in your impact crater and you start. Again.”
Sometimes life’s a bitch and you keep on living.
Actually this one and I just saw it on Lemmy too. As a life long Trek fan I have this quote in my head quite often.
“The only person who won’t fire you is you.”
Maya Angelou: “Do your best until you know better, then do better”
Your dog might not be your entire life, but you are the entire life of your dog
That is exactly the same for your kids, it is not until their world expands a bit when they are 3-5YO; before that you are literally everything to them.
Thats a good one, also along the lines “In our dogs eyes we are the immortal elves.”
Yeah, that’s a good one too.
Every time I think about how important we are to them and how loyal they are, I end up thinking about the “Jurrasic Bark” episode in Futurama 😭
Lol F you, I’m not clicking on that 😢
“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final.”
– Rainer Maria RilkeThis was used at the end of the movie Jojo Rabbit (one of my favorite movies btw). I often remember this line when I feel like everything is going wrong. It helps me hold on to hope.
Reminds me of bash.org RIP https://bash-org-archive.com/?top
- “Where ever you go, there you are”
- “We have just enough fuel to make it to the crash site”
- “Ruh-Rouh”
- “Deny, Deny, Deny - Until you believe!”
- “A Rule without Enforcement is just wishful thinking”
- “When life gives you lemons- BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD”
- “Ignoring a alert is the same as normalizing alerts, if it’s important, don’t ignore it, if it’s not important don’t alert for it”
- “Follow the money” - Gripping Hand I think
- “Premature optimization is the root of all evil” - Knuth maybe
- “Once you know something is possible, doing it becomes a exercise in persistence.”
- “Science isn’t what other people say, its what YOU can observe”
“There’s no such thing as retard/idiot proof, only retard/idiot resistant.”
'A business should never buy idiot proof systems they should just stop hiring idiots"
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
The whole poem by Dylan Thomas is fantastic but that line in particular often pops into my head during difficult times, like these.
This is my favorite reading of it. Gives me goosebumps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESWzPhZWYeI
“Silence deafens everything.” At first it seems counterintuitive, but being silent can “deafen” those around you (or society) to an issue or problem.
And my friends dad commented on his wanderlust need : “It doesn’t matter where you travel to, you will never get away from yourself”
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.
-Vladimir Lenin
Very applicable today, there’s no better time than the present to read theory and get organized. If anyone wants, I can post a short introductory reading list on Marxism.
Thank you. Been thinking about finding good leftist quotes to as my phone wallpaper. Are there more, shorter quotes?
I’m curious about the intro reading list. I’ve tried the manifesto and listened to some audiobooks by Dessalines. Are there newer articles that are recommended, that summarise/improve the pre-existing content? Especially ones that talk about how the things were/are to be applied.
Lenin is a huge yapper, he has tons of fantastic quotes. Another good one is “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
Here’s a little “intro to Marxism-Leninism” list I threw together, modified a bit. It’s critically missing Queer Theory, Feminist Theory, and National Liberation theory, so any additions on that matter would be excellent. I am working through intersectional theory right now, which is why it is missing from this present list, the goal is to be as straight to the point as possible.
A good intro for someone with no familiarity is Engels’ Principles of Communism and if you are anti-AES but willing to read I recommend Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds.
From there, it becomes more important to understand that Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components:
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Dialectical and Historical Materialism
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Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx’s Law of Value
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Advocacy for Revolutionary Socialism
And as such, I recommend, in order:
- Politzer’s Elementary Principles of Philosophy
By far my favorite primer on Dialectical and Historical Materialism. By understanding DiaMat first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism.
Further reading on DiaMat, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, essentially explaining how Capitalism itself preps the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates.
- Marx’s Wage Labor and Capital as well as Wages, Price and Profit
Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value.
Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions.
- Lenin’s The State and Revolution
Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, and not replaced. Also a good call to action to cap off the intro.
After reading all of this, whoever has completed these works should have a good grasp of the basics of Marxism-Leninism and be equipped to do their own Marxist-Leninist analysis, though tons of excellent and fairly critical works were dropped for the sake of limiting the scope to an intro reading list.
For your specific question regarding modern, easier to get into theory, I really love this person’s essays on Marxism. They are more advanced, but focus on modern Marxist analysis. I think Why Do Marxists Fail to Bring the “Worker’s Paradise?”, Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism, and Why Public Property? are 3 of the best modern essays and primers on Socialism. The first goes over the Materialist theory of Democratic Structures and how they can be built while critically analyzing AES through an AES-positive viewpoint, the second goes over misconceptions about the PRC, and the last helps explain why Marxists advocate for public ownership and central planning, and why Capitalism makes way for this through decentralized markets coalescing into monopolist syndicates.
Let me know if you have any questions!
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