All you have to do is wrap up your argument in “protecting the children” or “fighting terrorism” and you can generally fool half of the people half of the time about any terrible policy you want.

Finalement finalement. Il nous fallut bien du talent. Pour être vieux sans être adultes.

Jacques Brel – La Chanson Des Vieux Amants

The valuable ideas are the ones people question, because where there is a question there is room to explore.

If someone likes your idea the first time you explain it, your idea isn’t risky enough.

Nicolas Cole

Don’t think of yourself as being passionate, think of yourself as being a problem-solver.

Aytekin Tank

Life’s two most important questions are “Why?” and “Why not?” The trick is knowing which one to ask.

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now – by Gordon Livingston

The three components of happiness

  • Something to do
  • Someone to love
  • Something to look forward

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now – by Gordon Livingston

The tourist takes his culture with him; the traveler leaves his behind.

Those who travel outside their own culture wear their country on their sleeve.

When you arrive in a new country, you bring along “cultural baggage” – your own set of assumptions, values, beliefs, and certainties. They can be a heavy burden, slowing you down as you explore new territories. Try to empty the cultural baggage from your mental suitcase.

See not only what you expected to see; also be open to anything and everything that comes your way. All experiences can be enriching.

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

To feel at home, stay at home. A foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It’s designed to make its own people comfortable.

Those who like to feel they are always right should stay at home.

Au Contraire: Figuring Out the French – By Gilles Asselin and Ruth Mastron

The Cartesian method requires that all elements of a problem and its solution be thoroughly mapped out before any action is taken. Intellectual mastery of the situation is what matters. Americans prefer to take action as quickly as possible and deal with details as they crop up.

In American thinking patterns, the shortest route to action must be the most efficient and the most practical, and therefore the best. Americans make decisions and implement them rapidly, making adjustments as they go.

The French prefer to map things out completely before taking action. The shortest route may not be the most scenic one, and though it will get you to your destination quickly, you might miss something important along the way. Only when they have an intellectual control of all aspects of a plan do they feel confident enough to implement it.

Au Contraire: Figuring Out the French – By Gilles Asselin and Ruth Mastron

The minority parties in the French parliament are called “opposition.” This term is a clear indication of an environment where those parties’ job is to fight and not to cooperate in the creation of a healthier society.

Au Contraire: Figuring Out the French – By Gilles Asselin and Ruth Mastron

An hour completely detached from your daily grind is much more productive than 5 hours detached in which you mentally punish yourself for “taking a break.”

Nicolas Cole

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

Linus Pauling

Nearly everything you know is secondhand: things you know only because someone told you.

Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want – Nicholas Epley

Knowledge is a curse because once you have it, you can’t imagine what it’s like not to possess it.

Capital placé nécessaire pour être indépendant financièrement = revenus annuels x 25

Pour un placement à un taux de rentabilité annuel de 4%.

Soit 250 000 € pour 10 000 € de revenus annuels.

Agency

Capacité à agir sur le monde, les choses, les êtres, à les transformer ou les influencer. S’opposer aux inébranlables, aux structures figées.

Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other.people can use.

Steve Jobs

The only way we make any change in our lives, is to do the things that scare us.

John Gorman

Inversion is often at the core of great art. At any given time there is a status quo in society and the artists and innovators who stand out are often the ones who overturn the standard in a compelling way.

James Clear