A belief in Balance
It is generally best to strive for a reasonable balance between competing concerns, rather than viewing any one of them as fundamentally absolute.
Quotations
“Fruitful tension”
The world around you is in flux? You’re anxious to control your destiny but yearn for the aid, comforts, and genuine recognition of a community? You wonder at the marvels of modern science but tremble at its implications of a world without God, or indeed any moral character or ideal purpose? James and Dewey sought to reconcile – or rather, hold in fruitful tension – the notions of unity and pluralism, change and continuity, free will and determinism, science and religion, self and society, real and ideal, and to show other people how their lives would be better if they learned to do the same.
Trygve Throntveit, 2020
“Balance is Required to Maintain Democracy”
Our current lack of respect for the swing can be likened to the current state of our democracy. Balance is required to maintain something as delicate as democracy, a subtle understanding of how your power can be magnified through joining with and sharing the power of another person. When that is no longer understood, it becomes a battle to see who is the strongest, who is the loudest, who can get the most attention.
Wynton Marsalis, from the book Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life, 2008, © Wynton Marsalis Enterprises
“A Completely Free Market”
In a completely free market, unsupervised by kings and priests, avaricious capitalists can establish monopolies or collude against their workforces. If there is a single corporation controlling all shoe factories in a country, or if all factory owners conspire to reduce wages simultaneously, then the labourers are no longer able to protect themselves by switching jobs.
Yuval Noah Harari, from the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, 2015, © Yuval Noah Harari
“Consistency is the playground of dull minds”
Just as medieval culture did not manage to square chivalry with Christianity, so the modern world fails to square liberty with equality. But this is no defect. Such contradictions are an inseparable part of every human culture. In fact, they are culture’s engines, responsible for the creativity and dynamism of our species. Just as when two clashing musical notes played together force a piece of music forward, so discord in our thoughts, ideas and values compel us to think, re-evaluate and criticise. Consistency is the playground of dull minds.
Yuval Noah Harari, from the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, 2015, © Yuval Noah Harari
“Continually debating people and never winning”
If your view of the world is that people use reason for their important decisions, you are setting yourself up for a life of frustration and confusion. You’ll find yourself continually debating people and never winning except in your own mind. Few things are as destructive and limiting as a worldview that assumes people are mostly rational.
Scott Adams, from the book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life, 2014
“Everything had nuance”
In Pauline and Mal’s house, nothing was simple. In her parents’ house, things had been good or bad, right or wrong, useful or wasteful. There had been nothing in between. Here, she found, everything had nuance; everything had an unrevealed side or unexplored depths. Everything was worth looking at more closely.
Celeste Ng, from the book Little Fires Everywhere, 2017, © Celeste Ng
“A foolish consistency”
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from the essay “Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, 1841
“It is foolish to view realism and idealism as incompatible”
I consider myself a realist. I have certainly seen my share of the world as it really is and not how I wish it would be. What I’ve learned is that it is foolish to view realism and idealism as incompatible or to consider our power and wealth as encumbered by the demands of justice, morality and conscience.
John McCain, from the interview “New York Times”, Nov 26, 2006, © The New York Times Company
“When Growth Becomes a Supreme Good”
This is the fly in the ointment of free-market capitalism. It cannot ensure that profits are gained in a fair way, or distributed in a fair manner. On the contrary, the craving to increase profits and production blinds people to anything that might stand in the way. When growth becomes a supreme good, unrestricted by any other ethical considerations, it can easily lead to catastrophe.
Yuval Noah Harari, from the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, 2015, © Yuval Noah Harari
“A Work Ethic Gone Mad”
The blend of corporate mysticism and transcendental consumerism he [Tom Peters] offers has its roots planted in the pragmatic, optimistic, can-do American work ethic. But, like the Taylorist philosophy from which it springs, it is also a work ethic gone mad. It begins with the idea that work can be meaningful and stretches it to the point where there is no meaning outside work. It becomes a deluded form of optimism, a feverish activity that masks an underlying anxiety about the meaning of life, a form of self-alienation so complete that the self disappears entirely into its consumer preferences and transactions.
Matthew Stewart, from the book The Management Myth: Why the Experts Keep Getting it Wrong, 2009, © Matthew Stewart