Do not confuse your vested interests with ethics. Do not identify the enemies of your privilege with the enemies of humanity.
Max LernerRead
The best thing about lying in bed late is that you learn to distinguish between first things and trivia, for whatever presses on you has to prove its importance before it makes you move.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Lying in bed allows you to reflect and identify what is truly important in life.
This quote emphasizes the value of reflection and discernment. When lying in bed late, one can take a moment to consider the significance of various thoughts and concerns, evaluating what truly demands attention and what is merely trivial. This state of contemplation helps prioritize one's actions based on genuine importance rather than being driven by distractions or pressures.
Themes
ReflectionImportanceDiscernmentPriorityTrivia
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about work-life balance, one might quote this to emphasize the need for reflection.
More from Max Lerner
All quotes →Despite the success cult, men are most deeply moved not by the reaching of the goal but by the grandness of the effort involved in getting there - or failing to get there.
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When evil acts in the world it always manages to find instruments who believe that what they do is not evil but honorable.
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Of the many things we have done to democracy in the past, the worst has been the indignity of taking it for granted.
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The problem of freedom in America is that of maintaining a competition of ideas, and you do not achieve that by silencing one brand of idea.
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