We tend to think that if we just had a better job, a better house, a better partner, we'd finally be happy. But research suggests that we're not very good at predicting what will make us happy — and more importantly, we're not very good at understanding why we're unhappy in the first place.
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Most people think that if they just had more information, they'd make better decisions. But the problem is rarely informational — it's structural. The question isn't 'what do I know?' but 'what am I incentivized to see?'
Charlie Munger — Poor Charlie's Almanack
The tendency to claim God as an ally for our partisan values and ends is one of the most childish, as it is one of the most universal, of human follies.
Reinhold Niebuhr — Moral Man and Immoral Society
The moment we cease to take stock of what is habitual, we begin to understand what is possible. Most men mistake the ruts of their days for the roads of their destiny.
Walter Bagehot — Physics and Politics