The Valley

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

GK Chesterton

Giving in the Pinch

The mark of perfect friendship is not that help will be given when the pinch comes (of course it will) but that having been given, it makes no difference at all.

CS Lewis

The Good Fortune of Others

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.

Archibald Rutledge

Good Husbands

One good Husband is worth two good Wives; for the scarcer things are, the more they're valued.

Ben Franklin

The Cause of Overspending

Ample market research shows that people who overspend usually do it to feel good or to feel in control, not because they need the items they buy. Slapping down the plastic makes them feel powerful, secure, able to make their way in the world.

So chiding your spouse, or even just stressing the virtues of scrimping and saving, is going to backfire. The more you talk about that stuff, the more your spouse will feel out of control - the same emotion that drives the indulgences in the first place.

A more effective strategy is to encourage your spouse to own the problem. Keep track of what your household spends, weekly or monthly, and ask him or her to review those accounts. Don't say anything else. That way the choice to cut back is under your spouse's control, making it more likely to happen.

If that doesn't work? You know the time has come to get separate bank accounts.

Finally, you might consider lightening up a little. Marriage is one of life's great blessings. If you think the occasional iToy is expensive, wait until you see how much a divorce costs.

Tyler Cowen in Money Magazine

Obstacles

Obstacles are those frightful things we see when we take our eyes off our goal.

Henry Ford

Self-Deceit

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
Demosthenes

Feeling Inferior

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Neurosis

Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.

Carl Jung

In Motion

Never confuse motion with action.

Ernest Hemingway

Wall Building

Never build a wall until you know what you're walling in and what you're walling out.

Adversity and Power

Nearly all men can stand adversity. but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Abraham Lincoln

Geography in Cognition

“Why do you find, in a music conservatory, a lot of Asian would-be concert pianists but comparatively few Asian opera-singers-in-training? There's a physical limit to how many hours a day a person can sing but not to how many hours one can practice sonata.” (Forbes, May 11 issue).

That’s the view of Richard Nisbett, who outlines his view that I.Q. is more malleable than we typically think in his book Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.
He says Asian-Americans score higher on the SAT and Asian students perform better on math and science exams than American students because of their culture and educational system. It emphasizes connectedness. Asian schools have a students work out math problems on a chalk board while classmates make suggestions. American businesses recognize this by using different advertising strategies in the US and Asia. Samsung’s message in the US is "I march to the beat of my own drum," appealing to American individualism while the company’s Korea ad campaign focuses on families staying connected.

Stephen Goforth

Doubt and Dogmatism

Most people tend to overcompensate.. people who are riddled with doubts tend to be dogmatists who are never wrong.

John Powell