🧠 Wisdom Collection

Quotes, paradoxes, poems, and philosophical gems — curated by Pipps

⚔️ George S. Patton

General Patton — soldier, strategist, straight-talker. No nonsense.

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week."

— George S. Patton

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

— George S. Patton

"Do not try to make circumstances fit your plans. Make plans that fit the circumstances."

— George S. Patton

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking."

— George S. Patton

📜 Rudyard Kipling — "If—"

Written in 1895, published 1910. One of the most enduring poems in the English language — a father's guide to manhood.

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

— Rudyard Kipling (1895)

💡 Mindset & Fear

F.E.A.R. — False Evidence Appearing Real.

— Popular acronym / motivational philosophy

"Better to be a restrained monster, than a well-behaved coward."

— Unknown

"Traditions are experiments that worked."

— Unknown

"The things you learn after you know everything are the most important."

— John Wooden (attributed)

"Trust is not what you want it to be. It is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie."

— Pipps

"There are 2 kinds of people: those who use tact, and those who tell the truth."

— Unknown

😏 Wit & Sharp Observations

"If a grasshopper tries to fight a lawnmower, one may admire his courage but not his judgement."

— Robert A. Heinlein

"It's not the hope that kills you. It's knowing it's the hope that kills you, that kills you."

— Slow Horses (TV Series)

"All models are wrong, however some are useful."

— George E. P. Box (statistician)

🔬 Philosophical Concepts

The Abilene Paradox

The group makes a decision that none of them want, yet all think they do. Named after a story where a family drives to Abilene, Texas — each agreeing only because they thought others wanted to go. No one actually wanted to.

Consequentialism

The ethical view that the morality of an action depends solely upon its consequences rather than the action itself. "What makes an action right or wrong is based upon the outcome, not the nature of the action."

Deontological Ethics

Using a moral code to guide one's actions — even if the consequences are bad. "Certain actions are inherently right or wrong regardless of consequences." (Kant's categorical imperative.)

🪓 Viking & Norse Wisdom

Proverbs and sayings from the Norse tradition, including lines from the Hávamál ("Sayings of the Most High") — attributed to Odin.

"The wise man does not trust strength, but wisdom."

— Norse proverb

"It is better to die with honor than to live in shame."

— Norse proverb

"Courage isn't the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome it."

— Norse proverb

"The fool meddles in everyone's affairs, except his own."

— Norse proverb

"Not everyone who walks next to you is your friend."

— Norse proverb

"The wise man is master of his words; the fool is slave to them."

— Norse proverb

"The force is within you."

— Norse proverb / Hávamál

⚡ Mythology Curiosities

Baldr — The Beloved God

Baldr (Norse) was the son of Odin and Frigg (also known as Freya/Venus in related traditions). Beloved by all, his death at the hands of Loki triggered Ragnarök. Frigg secured oaths from everything in the world not to harm him — except the mistletoe.

Is "Lucky" a Corruption of Loki?

Fascinating theory. Loki was a trickster god associated with fortune and chaos — "luck" in the ambiguous, double-edged sense. The Old Norse Loki → Germanic → Old English evolution may have contributed to words meaning luck or fortune. Linguists debate it, but the mythological parallel is compelling.

🏛️ Presidential Inaugural Openings

How a leader opens their moment of power says everything.

"Undertaking the arduous duties that I have been appointed..."

— Andrew Jackson, Inaugural Address

"Among the vicissitudes incident to life..."

— George Washington, Inaugural Address

"This is America's day."

— Joe Biden, Inaugural Address

💬 More Wisdom

"The past is a prison. Every regret is a chain that keeps you locked up."

— Unknown

"There are no solutions, only trade-offs."

— Thomas Sowell

"You're never going to know how it ends for your friends and family. You're only going to know how it ends for you."

— Jack Reacher (Lee Child)

"Great minds talk about ideas. Average minds talk about events. Small minds talk about people."

— Eleanor Roosevelt

"Only thoughts had while walking have any worth."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"A fortunate series of accidents that worked."

— JVD

"Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life."

— Jerzy Gregorek

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are."

— Kurt Cobain

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness."

— Carl G. Jung

"Whenever you think you can or think you can't, either way you are right."

— Henry Ford

"Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential."

— Winston S. Churchill

"The thing that cowardice fears most is decision."

— Søren Kierkegaard

"Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."

— Søren Kierkegaard

"The tyrant dies and his rule is over. The martyr dies and his rule begins."

— Søren Kierkegaard

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

— Socrates (as recorded by Plato, Apology)

"It is better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed. The result may be the same, but you won't be. We always grow more through defeats than victories."

— Unknown

"Confidence is the present tense of hope."

— Unknown

🏛️ Philosophers & Statesmen

Stoic wisdom has its own home → Stoicism — Daily Practices & Wisdom

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"We must all wear out or rust out. My choice is to wear out."

— Theodore Roosevelt

"When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on."

— Theodore Roosevelt

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

— Theodore Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic (1910)

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

— Theodore Roosevelt

"Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance."

— Theodore Roosevelt

"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading."

— Thomas Jefferson (attributed)

"Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions."

— T.S. Eliot

"Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. If they are equal, they are not free."

— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

— Winston Churchill

"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence."

— Col. Hannibal Smith quoting Gandhi, The A-Team

🦁 Secondhand Lions — What a Man Needs to Believe

"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in most. That people are basically good. That honor, courage and virtue mean everything. That power and money mean nothing. That good always triumphs over evil. And I want you to remember this — that love, true love, never dies. It doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in these things, because these things are worth believing in."

— Robert Duvall, Secondhand Lions (2003)

🗡️ Conan — The Wheel of Pain & The Riddle of Steel

"What is best in life?"

"Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women."

— Conan the Barbarian (1982)

The Wheel of Pain — Allegory of Forging

The Wheel of Pain is not a metaphor. It is what it is — never-ending pain, numbing boredom, and madness. Most men chained to it go insane or die. But a rare few are forged by it into something harder than steel — men who master body, mind, fear, and pain. The War Masters built it knowing this: that steel isn't strong, flesh is stronger. When the Wheel has done its work, the man becomes the living answer to the Riddle of Steel — focused power, controlled rage, no fear or doubt. He just is what he is. Real. And that's all that matters.

When Conan finally tears the wheel necklace from his neck and replaces it with the Serpent's Eye, emotion returns — and slowly, the lessons of the Wheel are forgotten. He ends with the jeweled crown of Aquilonia resting "upon a troubled brow."