Quotes About Comparison

Nothing humbles a beautiful woman better than not being wanted by a man whose girlfriend or wife is ugly (or not as beautiful as she is).

We feel the most balance when we're not dividing ourselves on other people's scales.

Do you think your soul is more beautiful than your body?

I feel more human when I compare the cuteness of a lizard to a newborn child's sweetness. Both are God's creations filled with precious innocence

...because unlike some, I wasn't in line when they were handling out perfect genes.

Don't confuse luck with skill when judging others, and especially when judging yourself.

Consider, for example, the strange and fascinating story of Mohammed; analyze his life, compare him with men of achievement in this modern age of industry and finance, and observe how they have one outstanding trait in common, persistence!

Another weakness found in altogether too many people is the habit of measuring everything, and everyone, by their own impressions and beliefs.

The little ragged newsboy on the street stands, with wide-open mouth, and envies the business man as he alights from his automobile at the curb and starts into his office. "How happy I would be," the newsboy says to himself, "if I owned a Lizzie." And, the business man seated at his desk inside, thinks how happy he would be if he could add another million dollars to his already overswollen bank roll.

Just as no monkey is as good-looking as the ugliest of humans, no academic is worthier than the worst of the creators

Don't talk about "progress" in terms of longevity, safety, or comfort before comparing zoo animals to those in the wilderness.

one cannot judge a performance in any given field (war, politics, medicine, investments) by the results, but by the costs of the alternative (i.e., if history played out in a different way).

People feel deep anxiety finding out that someone they thought was stupid is actually more intelligent than they are.

They will envy you for your success, for your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status—but rarely for your wisdom.

There is something nonphilosophical about investing one's pride and ego into a "my house/ library/ car is bigger than that of others in my category"—it is downright foolish to claim to be first in one's category all the while sitting on a time bomb.

But fragility and antifragility are part of the current property of an object, a coffee table, a company, an industry, a country, a political system. We can detect fragility, see it, even in many cases measure it, or at least measure comparative fragility with a small error while comparisons of risk have been (so far) unreliable.

This anchoring to a number is the reason people do not react to their total accumulated wealth, but to differences of wealth from whatever number they are currently anchored to. This is the major conflict with economic theory, as according to economists, someone with $1 million in the bank would be more satisfied than if he had half a million. But

The fact that he did not experience John's success was the reason he did not suffer his downfall.

In 1960 Taiwan had a much lower literacy rate than the Philippines and half the income per person; today Taiwan has ten times the income. At

notion of alternative accounting: $ 10 million earned through Russian roulette does not have the same value as $ 10 million earned through the diligent and artful practice of dentistry.

wealth is seen as zero-sum.

Just look at how different the large stone is from the pebbles:

What a contrast with the other traders who lacked polish!

envy is something you are more likely to encounter in your own kin: lower classes are more likely to experience envy toward their cousins or the middle class than toward the very rich.