very secret quote stash. don't panic. quotes may cause existential amusement.

"a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion"

"…just as Columbus did, before his wonderful voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, when he gave the reasons for his confidence that he could find new lands and continents beyond those known already; reasons which, although rejected at first, were later proved by experiment, and became the causes and starting points of great things"

"If the truth shall kill them, let them die"

"To be is to do"

"I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith"

"Ford was the kind of guy that when something was in the way, he found a way around it, he just got it done. He was really focused on what the customer needed, even when the customer didn’t know what they needed"

"Failure can be the information you need to get where you're going"

"We aim to invest in category-defining companies with a singular conviction"

"We're looking for remarkable intellect, extreme focus, an obsession with the customer, unreasonable determination, especially in the face of adversity, clear and credible ambition, and usually a bit of divergence—people who don't feel the need to be liked by everybody"

"My unmatched perspicacity, coupled with sheer indefatigability makes me a FEARED OPPONENT IN ANY REALM OF HUMAN ENDEAVOUR"

"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."

"At a hundred and thirty pounds, Altman is poised as a clothespin, fierce as a horned owl. Even in a Valley that worships productivity, he is an outlier, plowing through e-mails and meetings as if strapped to a time bomb, his unblinking stare speeding up colleagues until they sound like chipmunks."

"Man has a large capacity for effort. In fact it is so much greater than we think it is that few ever reach this capacity. We should value the faculty of knowing what we ought to do and having the will to do it. Knowing is easy; it is the doing that is difficult. The critical issue is not what we know but what we do with what we know. The great end of life is not knowledge, but action. I believe that it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him ... we must live for the future, not for our own comfort or success."

"It's generally human nature to overestimate risk and underestimate opportunity"

"Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy"