Quotes About Comparison

I am so old that I can remember when other people's achievements were considered to be an inspiration, rather than a grievance.

Alaska is much larger than France and Germany—combined. Yet its population is less than one-tenth that of New York City. Keep that in mind the next time you hear some environmentalist hysteria about the danger of "spoiling" Alaska by drilling for oil in an area smaller than Dulles Airport.

24 percent of something is larger than 73 percent of nothing.

Seldom is the claim made that black Americans alive at this moment are worse off than if their ancestors had been left in Africa. Any attempt to make that case with statistics on income, life expectancy, or numerous other variables would collapse like a house of cards.

The feeling that the government should "do something" has seldom been based on a comparison of what actually happens when government does and when it does not "do something.

The United States as a whole is larger than the Roman Empire at its greatest expansion.

In contrast to times past when low-income people lived packed into overcrowded housing, Americans living below the official poverty level today have more housing space per person than the average European— not poor Europeans, but the average European.

when the monetary value of output per capita in Nigeria is less than 2 percent of that in the United States-and in Tanzania less than 1 percent°~-that clearly cannot all be due to exchange rates.

Table 6.1 Median Family Income of Ethnic Groups in the United States, Ranked by Percentage of the National Average, 1969 Jewish 172% Japanese 132% Polish 115% Chinese 112% Italian 112% German 107% Anglo-Saxon 105% Irish 103% National Average 100% Filipino 99% West Indian 94% Cuban 80% Mexican 76% Puerto Rican 63% Black 62% Indian (American) 60%

The dire poverty of the early nineteenth century Irish may be indicated by their average life expectancy of 19 years-compared to 36 years for contemporary American slaves-and the fact that slaves in the United States typically lived in houses a little larger than the unventilated huts of the Irish and slept on mattresses, while the Irish slept in piles of

In 21st century China, seven times more energy is used than is used in Japan to produce products of the same value. In this case, the gigantic differences in efficiency have also meant gigantic differences in the standard of living of millions of human beings.

Many rubber estates kept records of the daily output of each tapper, and distinguished between the output of Chinese and Indian workers. The output of the Chinese was usually more than double that of the Indians, with all of them using the same simple equipment of tapping knife, latex cup and latex bucket. There were similar or even wider differences between Chinese, Indian and Malay smallholders. .

You might also try making a list of your parents' values and beliefs, and follow the above procedure, making a list of your own values and beliefs to compare. If your parents valued a spotless house, do you truly value the same thing, or do you have a different value? Maybe you'd rather meet your friends and have fun, and clean once a month instead of once a week. That's perfectly fine—everyone has different values.

Mom thinks I live in this dream world where everybody's Ivana Trump.

But no fifty-year-old can compete with a twenty-year-old.

Why must people always assume we moderns knew more than any of the previous cultures? It simply isn't true, evidence proves otherwise.

That's why an Angelina Jolie is always going to win over a Winona Ryder. Fuckups are more interesting.

Women didn't want to be on the stage with other women because they didn't want their bodies to be compared. They didn't want another female act opening for them because of this weird competitive and tokenistic attitude.

Perfection....it functions as a form of myopia, a preoccupation with self-image that can stunt emotional growth.

We have by far the most expensive health system in the world. We spend 50 percent more per person than the next most costly nation. Americans spend more on health care than housing or food.

Some day you will have a nemesis,' Madame warned bitterly. 'It's not easy, you know. Someone who has the ability to do everything you wish you could, but with greater ease, style, success.

Some day you will have a nemesis,' Madame warned bitterly. 'It's not easy, you know. Someone who has the ability to do everything you wish you could, but with greater ease, style, success.' Grace

Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own. Harold Coffin

There are more avid postage stamp collectors in the United States than welfare recipients.