Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
Interpretation
Life often presents us with challenges where one must choose to assert themselves rather than be passive.
This quote by Bertrand Russell suggests that life can be perceived as a struggle where individuals feel they must take an active role, often characterized by competition and assertiveness. It implies that we encounter the choice between being proactive in our pursuits and falling victim to circumstances, highlighting the importance of agency in the face of adversity.
In practice
Use this quote in a motivational speech about overcoming life's challenges.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
When we look into the human heart we see the lust, the greed, the hate, the pride, the anger, and the jealousies that are so destructive. This is at the heart of the human predicament, and the Scriptures call this condition sin.
Chance does not speak essentially through words nor can it be seen in their convolution. It is the eruption of language, its sudden appearance. It's not a night twinkle with stars, an illuminated sleep, nor a drowsy vigil. It is the very edge of consciousness.
The energy of the mind is the essence of life.
The only difference between a hero and the villain is that the villain chooses to use that power in a way that is selfish and hurts other people.
Straight ahead you can't go very far.
Without forgetting it is quite impossible to live at all.
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