Quotes About Adaptation

One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from enjoying ourselves; one must recognize human shortcomings and adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault with them.

The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances.

In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within them an invincible power. The unwise destroy themselves in resistance. The skillful accept events, take strong hold of them and direct them.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.

In a sense, evolution adheres to the classic twelve-step program: it takes things one day at a time. It does not strive for perfection; it does not strive at all. There is no progress, no plans, no scala natura , or scale of nature, that ranks organisms from lowly to superior, primitive to advanced.

Our minds hurtled outward in all directions. We became absurdly creative, Homo artifactus , intolerant of bare cave walls and naked clay pots.

LIFE IS NOT ORDERLY. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce.

It is also hard to write about a city we just moved to; it's not yet in our body.

There is no failure—just a big field to wander in.

If you missed the mouse today, you'll get it tomorrow. You never leave who you are. If you are a writer when writing, you are also a writer when you are cooking, sleeping, walking. And if you are a mother, a painter, a horse, a giraffe, or a carpenter, you will bring that into your writing, too.

he's stuck with them, so he makes the best of a bad situation. he's a hero because he makes something good out of a life he doesn't want.

Selbst wenn ich wollte, könnte ich mich nicht mehr in die alte Schneekugel zurückquetschen, in der mich jeder haben will. Das Glas ist längst zerbrochen.

The music technology scene is changing so fast it's hard to keep up.

football field, but you don't play football all the time," says Kenzie. "A running back can't always rush. Sometimes you have to hold back. Think of what might happen if I used my super strength all the time.

There were new words for everything in their dead language put back to use. New words for the jets and their radar systems. New words for the tanks and the radios inside. But for this, for the hammer and beat of the forge, the Bible still sufficed.

In a world in which the total of human knowledge is doubling about every ten years, our security can rest only on our ability to learn.

The rule of captivity is to bend, not break.

Infantry Marines live only and forever in the real world.

No summer ever came back, and no two summers ever were alike. Times change, and people change; and if our hearts do not change as readily, so much the worse for us.

You can't be born again, but you can change.

I know it's not good to be weak and helpless. But I don't think it's good to be too strong either. In our society, they talk about survival of the fittest. But we're not animals. We're human.

A woman who does not know herself has no choice other than to live with other people's evaluations. But no one can adapt perfectly to public opinion. And herein lies the source of their destruction.

The way that words mutate reminds me of fashions in music. The word--the note--is a constant. But the setting and chord in which it occurs alters with the mood of a nation from major to minor, from the assertive to the mournful and foreboding.