So you are not a coder but as a non-technical person, you’re always open for simplified technical knowledge about Bitcoin. So, you would like to ask people of very deep knowledge of Bitcoin’s code what you would tell some non-technical people.
What are the most important technical points of Bitcoin, where you would say “it’s really important for Bitcoin and people should know it”. Important would also mean for Bitcoin from a hacking-resistant point and what is making Bitcoin superior against competing Altcoins?
The most important features of Bitcoin are that it’s maintained by the largest community of developers out of all the coins, and consequentially it has the largest test suite and debugging infrastructure.
It makes it really easy to pin-point bugs. I can’t stress enough how important having test cases is for your project, whatever it may be, whether it’s related to crypto or not. It saves you from a lot of future bug-hunting
Its simplicity. Not in the sense of being trivial, but in the sense of having a very focused feature set.
Also the importance if permissionlessness seems to be either ignored or forgotten by a lot of alts out there, whereas it remains a top priority for Bitcoin.
One more thing that sets Bitcoin apart is the immense decentralization – in hashpower, full nodes, development and community. For security, the first two are the most critical.
Most altcoins either don’t have node decentralization or / and they have a flawed consensus mechanism (proof of stake) that simply gives the developers total power over the project.
This allows them to change rules at will, but also allows authorities to press them to do such things. In Bitcoin, that’s simply impossible.
A PoW coin without enough hashpower can be attacked similarly, and as a matter of fact most energy is pumped into Bitcoin PoW, which makes it most secure.
Bitcoin works, it has been working fine for the past 13 years (all its life) and safely too.
* You don’t need any third party (middle man like banks) to send, receive or store your money when you use bitcoin.
* Nobody can restrict who sends you money or to whom you send your money
* You can reach anybody, anywhere at any time in the world.
* The payments can not be reversed like other payment networks which provides a lot of security for merchants
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
“Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will be as one”
John Lennon, Imagine
“He who joyfully marches to music rank and file has already earned my contempt.
He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord
would surely suffice.
This disgrace to civilization
should be done away with at once.
Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is;
I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action!
It is my conviction that killing
under the cloak of war is nothing
but an act of murder.”
Albert Einstein
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
George Orwell, “1984”
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Albert Einstein
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Plato
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”
Today the most civilized countries of the world spend a maximum of their income on war and a minimum on education.
The twenty-first century will
reverse this order.
It will be more glorious to fight against ignorance than to die on the field of battle.
The discovery of a new scientific truth
will be more important thanthe
squabbles of diplomats.
Even the newspapers of our own
dayare beginning to treat scientific discoveries and the creation of freshphilosophical concepts as news.
The newspapers of the twenty-first century will give a mere ‘stick’ in the back pages to accounts of crime or political controversies, but will headline on the front pages the proclamation of a new scientific hypothesis.
Progress along such lines will be impossible while nations persist in the savage
practice of killing each other off.
I inherited from my father, an erudite
man who labored hard for peace,
an ineradicable hatred of war.
Nikola Tesla
“Older men declare war.
But it is youth that must fight and die.”
Herbert Hoover
“War does not determine who is right – only who is left.”
Anonymous
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,those who are
cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not
spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers,
the genius of its scientists,
the hopes of its children.
This is not a way of life at all
in any true sense.
Under the clouds of war,
it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
“You can have peace.
Or you can have freedom.
Don’t ever count on having both at once.”
Robert A. Heinlein
“War is over … If you want it.”
John Lennon
“How is it possible to have a civil war?”
George Carlin
“It is not enough to win a war; it is more important to organize the peace.”
Aristotle
“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.
But in modern war, there is nothing
sweet nor fitting in your dying.
You will die like a dog
for no good reason.”
Ernest Hemingway
“In times of war, the law falls silent.”
“Silent enim leges inter arma“
Marcus Tullius Cicero
“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.”
Carl Sagan
“The human race is unimportant.
It is the self that must not be betrayed.”
“I suppose one could say that
Hitler didn’t betray his self.”
“You are right.
He did not.
But millions of Germans
did betray their selves.
That was the tragedy.
Not that one man had
the courage to be evil.
But that millions had not
the courage to be good.”
John Fowles, “The Magus”
“Fighting for peace, is like f***ing for chastity.”
Stephen King, “Hearts in Atlantis”
“I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.”
George McGovern
“Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist.
This is elementary common sense.
If you hamper the war effort of one side,
you automatically help out
that of the other.
Nor is there any real way
of remaining outside
such a war as the present one.
In practice, ‘he that is not with me
is against me’.”
George Orwell
“The essential act of war is destruction,
not necessarily of human lives,
but of the products of human labour.
War is a way of shattering to pieces,
or pouring into the stratosphere,
or sinking in the depths of the sea,
materials which might otherwise
be used to make the masses
too comfortable,and hence,
in the long run,too intelligent.”
George Orwell, “1984”
“Mankind must put an end to war – or war will put an end to mankind.”
[Address before the United Nations, September 25 1961]
John F. Kennedy
“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”
Henry Kissinger
“In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity In Peace: Good Will.”
Winston S. Churchill, “The Second World War”
“this is the 21st century and we need
to redefine r/evolution.
this planet needs a people’s r/evolution.
a humanist r/evolution.
r/evolution is not about bloodshed or about going to the mountains and fighting.
we will fight if we are forced to
but the fundamental goal of
r/evolution must be peace.
we need a r/evolution of the mind.
we need a r/evolution of the heart.
we need a r/evolution of the spirit.
the power of the people is stronger
than any weapon.
a people’s r/evolution can’t be stopped.
we need to be weapons
of mass construction.
weapons of mass love.
it’s not enough just to change the system.
we need to change ourselves.
we have got to make this world
user friendly. user friendly.
are you ready to sacrifice
to end world hunger.
to sacrifice to end colonialism.
to end neo-colonialism.
to end racism.
to end sexism.
r/evolution means the end of exploitation.
r/evolution means respecting
people from other cultures.
r/evolution is creative.
r/evolution means treating your
mate as a friend and an equal.
r/evolution is sexy.
r/evolution means respecting and
learning from your children.
r/evolution is beautiful.
r/evolution means protecting
the people.
the plants. the animals. the air. the water.
r/evolution means saving this planet.
r/evolution is love.”
Assata Shakur
“After all, no one is stupid enough to prefer war to peace; in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons.”
Herodotus
“Let my country die for me.”
James Joyce, “Ulysses”
“If we really saw war,
what war does to young minds and bodies, it would be impossible to embrace the myth of war.
If we had to stand over the mangled corpses of schoolchildren killed in Afghanistan and listen to the wails of their parents, we would not be able to repeat clichés we use to justify war.
This is why war is carefully sanitized.
This is why we are given war’s perverse and dark thrill but are spared from seeing war’s consequences.
The mythic visions of war keep it heroic and entertaining…
The wounded, the crippled, and the dead are, in this great charade, swiftly carted offstage.
They are war’s refuse.
We do not see them.
We do not hear them.
They are doomed, like wandering spirits, to float around the edges of our consciousness, ignored, even reviled.
The message they tell is too painful for us to hear.
We prefer to celebrate ourselves and our nation by imbibing the myths of glory, honor, patriotism, and heroism, words that in combat become empty and meaningless.“
Chris Hedges “Death of the Liberal Class”
“The ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry, but they cannot kill ignorance, illness, poverty or hunger.”
Fidel Castro
“For the whole earth is the tomb
of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns
and inscriptions in their own country,
but in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them,
graven not on stone
but in the hearts of men.
Make them your examples, and,
esteeming courage to be freedom and freedom to be happiness,
do not weigh too nicely
the perils of war.”
[Funeral Oration of Pericles]
Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”
“War and drink are the two things
man is never too poor to buy.”
William Faulkner
For me, the most ironic token of
[the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon.
It reads:
“We came in peace for all Mankind.”
As the United States wasdropping
7 ½ megatons of conventional
explosives on small nations
inSoutheast Asia,
we congratulated ourselves on
our humanity.
We would harm no one on a lifeless rock.”
Carl Sagan, “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”
“This topic brings me to that
worstoutcrop of herd life,
the military system, which I abhor…
This plague-spot of civilization ought
to be abolished with all possible speed.
Heroism on command,
senseless violence,
and all the loathsome nonsense that
goes by the name of patriotism —
how passionately I hate them!”
Albert Einstein
1. Bangladesh…. In 1971 … Kissinger overrode all advice in order to support
the Pakistani generals in both their
civilian massacre policy in East Bengal
and their armed attack on India
from West Pakistan….
This led to a moral and political catastrophe the effects of which are still sorely felt.
Kissinger’s undisclosed reason for the ‘tilt’ was the supposed but never materialised ‘brokerage’ offered by the dictator Yahya Khan in the course of secret diplomacy between Nixon and China….
Of the new state of Bangladesh,
Kissinger remarked coldly that it
was ‘a basket case’ before turning
his unsolicited expertise elsewhere.
2. Chile…. Kissinger had direct personal knowledge of the CIA’s plan to kidnap
and murder General René Schneider, the head of the Chilean Armed Forces … who refused to countenance military intervention in politics.
In his hatred for the Allende Government, Kissinger even outdid Richard Helms …
who warned him that a coup insuch
a stable democracy would
behard to procure.
The murder of Schneider nonetheless
went ahead, at Kissinger’s urging and
with American financing, just between Allende’s election and his confirmation….
This was one of the relatively few times
that Mr Kissinger (his success in getting people to call him ‘Doctor’ is greater
than that of most PhDs) involved himself
in the assassination of a single named individual rather than the slaughter
of anonymous thousands.
His jocular remark on this occasion—
‘I don’t see why we have to let a country
go Marxist just because its people
are irresponsible’—suggests he may
have been having the best of times….
3. Cyprus…. Kissinger approved of the preparations by Greek Cypriot fascists
for the murder of President Makarios,
and sanctioned the coup which tried
to extend the rule of the Athens junta
(a favoured client of his) to the island.
When despite great waste of life this coup failed in its objective, which was also Kissinger’s, of enforced partition, Kissinger promiscuously switched sides to support
an even bloodier intervention by Turkey.
Thomas Boyatt … went to Kissinger
in advance of the anti-Makarios
putschand warned him that it
could leadto a civil war.
‘Spare me the civics lecture,’ replied Kissinger, who as you can readily see had an aphorism for all occasions.
4. Kurdistan. Having endorsed the covert policy of supporting a Kurdish revolt
in northern Iraq between 1974 and 1975, with ‘deniable’ assistance also provided
by Israel and the Shah of Iran, Kissinger made it plain to his subordinates that
the Kurds were not to be allowed to win,
but were to be employed fortheir
nuisance value alone.
They were not to be told that this was
the case, but soon found out when
the Shah and Saddam Hussein composed their differences, and American
aid to Kurdistan was cut off.
Hardened CIA hands went to Kissinger …
for an aid programme for the many thousands of Kurdish refugees
who were thus abruptly created….
The apercu of the day was: ‘foreign policy should not he confused with missionary work.’ Saddam Hussein heartily concurred.
5. East Timor. The day after Kissinger left Djakarta in 1975, the Armed Forces
of Indonesia employed American weapons to invade and subjugate the independent former Portuguese colony of East Timor.
Isaacson gives a figure of 100,000 deaths resulting from the occupation, or one-seventh of the population, and there
are good judges who put this
estimateon the low side.
Kissinger was furious when news of
his own collusion was leaked, because
as well as breaking international law
the Indonesians were also violating
an agreement with the United States….
Monroe Leigh … pointed out this awkward latter fact. Kissinger snapped: ‘The Israelis when they go into Lebanon—when was the last time we protested that?‘
A good question, even if it did not and
does not lie especially well in his mouth.
It goes on and on and on until one
cannot eat enough to vomit enough.”
Christopher Hitchens
“At one time I had given much thought
to why men were so very rarely
capable of living for an ideal.
Now I saw that many, no,
all men were capable of dying for one.”
Hermann Hesse, “Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend”
“We need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.”
Howard Zinn
All wars are sacred,” he said.
“To those who have to fight them.
If the people who started wars
didn’t make them sacred,who would be
foolish enough to fight?
But, no matter what rallying cries
the orators give to the idiots who fight,
no matter what noble purposes they
assign to wars, there is neverbut
one reason for a war.
And that is money.
All wars are in reality money squabbles.
But so few people ever realize it.
Their ears are too full of bugles
anddrums and the fine words
from stay-at-home orators.
Sometimes the rallying cry is
’save the Tomb of Christ from the Heathen!’
Sometimes it’s ’down with Popery!’
andsometimes ‘Liberty!’
and sometimes
‘Cotton, Slavery and States’ Rights!”
Margaret Mitchell, “Gone with the Wind”
“The most dangerous people in the world are not the tiny minority instigating evil acts, but those who do the acts for them.
For example, when the British
invaded India, many Indians accepted
to work for the British to kill off
Indians who resisted their occupation.
So in other words, many Indians were
hired to kill other Indians on behalf
of the enemy for a paycheck.
Today, we have mercenaries in Africa, corporate armies from the western world, and unemployed men throughout the Middle East killing their own people – and people of other nations – for a paycheck.
To act without a conscience,
but for a paycheck,
makes anyone a dangerous animal.
The devil would be powerless
if he couldn’t entice people
to do his work.
So as long as money continuesto seduce
the hungry, the hopeless, the broken,
the greedy, and the needy,
there will always be
war between brothers.”
Suzy Kassem
“Peace is such hard work.
Harder than war.
It takes way more effort
to forgive than to kill.”
Rae Carson, “The Bitter Kingdom” (Fire and Thorns, #3)
“An unjust law is itself a species of violence.
Arrest for its breach is more so.
Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence.
This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.”
Mahatma Gandhi, “Non-violence in Peace and War” 1942-1949
“Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another.”
Sigmund Freud
“In war,
the strong make slaves of the weak,
and in peace,
the rich makes slaves of the poor.”
Oscar Wilde
“So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one’s fatherland
is to wish evil to one’s neighbors.
The citizen of the universe would be
the man who wishes his countrynever to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.”
Voltaire, “Philosophical Dictionary”
“A democracy which makes or eveneffectively prepares for modern,
A weapon is a manifestation of a decision that has already been made.”
Steven Galloway, “The Cellist of Sarajevo”
“There has never been a just [war],
never an honorable one —
on the part of the instigator of the war.
I can see a million years ahead,
and this rule will never change
in so many as half a dozen instances.
The loud little handful— as usual —
willshout for the war.
The pulpit will–warily and cautiously–object–at first;
the great, big, dull bulk of the nation
will rub its sleepy eyes and tryto
make out why there should be a war,
and will say, earnestly and indignantly,
‘It is unjust and dishonorable,
and there is no necessity for it.
‘ Then the handful will shout louder.
A few fair men on the other side will
argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity.
Before long you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform,
and free speech strangled by hordesof furious men who in their secret hearts are still at one with those stoned speakers–as earlier–but do not dare say so.
And now the whole nation–pulpit and all–will take up the war-cry, and shout
itself hoarse, and mob any honest man
who ventures to open his mouth;
and presently such mouths
will cease to open.
Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities,
and will diligently study them, and refuse
to examine any refutations of them;
and thus he will by and by convince
himself the war is just,
and will thank God
for the better sleep he enjoys
after this processof
grotesque self-deception.”
Mark Twain, “The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories”
“We often think of peace
as the absence of war,
that if powerful countries
would reduce their weapon arsenals,
we could have peace.
But if we look deeplyinto the weapons,
we see our own minds– our own
prejudices,fears and ignorance.
Even if we transport all the bombs
to the moon, the roots of war
and the roots of bombs are still there,
in our hearts and minds,
and sooner or later we will
make new bombs.
To work for peace is to uproot warfrom ourselves and from the hearts
of men and women.
To prepare for war,
to give millions of men and women
the opportunity to practice killing
day and night in their hearts,
is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, “Living Buddha, Living Christ”
“There are seasons of our lives when nothing seems to be happening, when no smoke betrays a burned town or homestead and few tears are shed for the newly dead.
I have learned not to trust those times, because if the world is at peace then it means someone is planning war.”
Bernard Cornwell, “Death of Kings” (The Saxon Stories, #6)
“That there are men in all countries
who get their living by war,
and by keeping up the quarrels
of Nations is as shocking as it is true…”
Thomas Paine
“The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps
and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees,
except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don’t mind admitting it.
They worship money and power and death.
Their ideal solution to all the
nation’s problems would be
another 100 Year War.”
Hunter S. Thompson, “Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century”
“Once war becomes a clash of absolutes, there is no breathing room for mercy.
Absolute truth is blind truth.”
Deepak Chopra, “The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore”
“What is so often said about the solders
of the 20th century is thatthe
foughtto make us free.
Which is a wonderful sentiment and
one witch should evoke tremendous gratitude if in fact there was a shred
of truth in that statement but,
it’s not true.
It’s not even close to true
in fact it’s the opposite of truth.
There’s this myth around that people believe that the way to honor deaths of so many of millions of people; that the way to honor is to say that we achieved some tangible, positive, good, out of their death’s.
That’s how we are supposed to
honor their deaths.
We can try and rescue some positive
and forward momentum of human progress, of human virtue from these hundreds of millions of death’s but we
don’t do it by pretending that they’d died
to set us free because we are less free;
far less free now then we were
beforethese slaughters began.
These people did not die to set us free.
They did not die fighting any enemy
other than the ones that the
previous deaths created.
The beginning of wisdom is to call
things by their proper names.
Solders are paid killers, and I say this
with a great degree of sympathy to young men and women who are suckered into
a life of evil through propaganda and the labeling of heroic to a man in costume who kills for money and the life of honor is accepting ordered killings for money, prestige, and pensions.
We create the possibility of moral choice
by communicating truth
about ethics to people.
That to me is where real heroism
and real respect for the dead lies.
Real respect for the dead lies in exhuming the corpses and hearing what they would say if they could speak out; and they
would say: If any ask us why we died tell
it’s because our fathers lied, tell them it’s because we were told that charging up a hill and slaughtering our fellow man was heroic, noble, and honorable.
But these hundreds of millions of ghosts encircled the world in agony, remorse
will not be released from our collective unconscious until we lay the truth of
theirmurders on the table and look
at the horror that is the lie;
that murder for money can be moral, that murder for prestige can be moral.
These poor young men and woman propagandized into an undead ethical status lied to about what is noble,
virtuous, courageous, honorable, decent, and good to the point that they’re rolling hand grenades into children’s rooms and the illusion that, that is going to make the world a better place.
We have to stare this in the face if we want to remember why these people died. They did not die to set us free. They did not die to make the world a better place. They died because we are ruled by sociopaths. The only thing that can create a better world is the truth is the virtue is the honor and courage of standing up to the genocidal lies of mankind and calling them lies and ultimate corruptions.
The trauma and horrors of this century of staggering bloodshed of the brief respite of the 19th century. This addiction to blood and the idea that if we pour more bodies into the hole of the mass graves of the 20th century, if we pour more bodies and more blood we can build some sort of cathedral to a better place but it doesn’t happen. We can throw as many young men and woman as we want into this pit of slaughter and it will never be full. It will never do anything other than sink and recede further into the depths of hell. We can’t build a better world on bodies. We can’t build peace on blood. If we don’t look back and see the army of the dead of the 20th century calling out for us to see that they died to enslave us. That whenever there was a war the government grew and grew.
We are so addicted to this lie. What we need to do is remember that these bodies bury us. This ocean of blood that we create through the fantasy that violence brings virtue. It drowns us, drowns our children, our future, and the world. When we pour these endless young bodies into this pit of death; we follow it.”
Stefan Molyneux
“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans
ofthe wounded who cry aloud for blood,
more vengeance, more desolation.
War is hell.”
William Tecumseh Sherman
Our enemies are Medes and Persians,
men who for centuries have lived
soft and luxurious lives;
we of Macedon for generations past
have been trained in the hard school
of danger and war.
Above all, we are free men,
and they are slaves.
There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service — but how different
is their cause from ours!
They will be fighting for pay — and not much of at that; we, on the contrary,
shall fight for Greece, and our
heartswill be in it.
As for our foreign troops — Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes — they
are the best and stoutest soldiers in Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia.
And what, finally, of the two men
in supreme command?
You have Alexander, they — Darius!”
Alexander the Great
“If I had known they were going to do this,
I would have become a shoemaker.”
Albert Einstein
“One question in my mind,
which I hardly dare mention in public,
is whether patriotism has, overall, been a force for good or evil in the world.
Patriotism is rampant in war and
there are some good things about it.
Just as self-respect and pride bring out the best in an individual, pride in family,
pride in teammates, pride in hometown bring out the best in groups of people.
War brings out the kind of pride in country that encourages its citizens in the direction of excellence and it encourages them
to be ready to die for it.
At no time do people work so well
together to achieve the same goal
as they do in wartime.
Maybe that’s enough to make patriotism eligible to be considered a virtue.
If only I could get out of my mind
the most patriotic people
who ever lived,
the Nazi Germans.”
Andy Rooney, “My War”
“My own concern is primarily the
terror and violence carried out by
my own state, for two reasons.
For one thing, because it happens to be the larger component of international violence.
But also for a much more important
reason than that; namely, I can
do something about it.
So even if the U.S. was responsible
for 2 percent of the violence in the
world instead of the majority of it,
it would bethat 2 percent I would
be primarily responsible for.
And that is a simple ethical judgment.
That is, the ethical value of one’s actions depends on their anticipated
and predictable consequences.
It is very easy to denounce the
atrocitiesof someone else.
That has about as much ethical value
as denouncing atrocities that
took place in the 18th century.”
Noam Chomsky
“We are in the hands of men whosepower and wealth have separatedthem
from the reality of daily life
and from the imagination.
We are right to be afraid.”
Grace Paley
“Wars of nations are fought
to change maps.
But wars of poverty are fought
to map change.”
Muhammad Ali
“What passing bells for these
who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifle’s rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them;
no prayers, nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells, And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held
to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes, Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall, Their flowers the tenderness
of patient minds, And each, slow dusk a drawing
down of blinds.”
Wilfred Owen, The War Poems
Millions of fathers in rain Millions of mothers in pain Millions of brothers in woe
Millions of sisters nowhere to go
Millions of daughters walk in the mud Millions of children wash in the flood A million girls vomit and groan Millions of families hopeless alone”
Allen Ginsberg, “Poems”
“No honest journalist should be willing to describe himself or herself as ’embedded.’
To say, ‘I’m an embedded journalist’ is to say, ‘I’m a government Propagandist.”
Noam Chomsky, “Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World”
“Darwinism by itself did not produce the Holocaust, but without Darwinism…
neither Hitler nor his Nazi followers
would have had the necessary scientific underpinnings to convince themselves
and their collaborators that one
of the worlds greatest atrocities
was really morally praiseworthy.”
Richard Weikart, “From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany”
“War means fighting.
The business of the soldier is to fight.
Armies are not called out to dig trenches,
to throw up breastworks,to live in camps, but to find the enemy and strike him; to invade his country, and do him all possible damage in the shortest possible time.
This will involve great destruction of life and property while it lasts; but such a war will of necessity be of brief continuance,
and so would be an economy of life
and property in the end.”
Stonewall Jackson
“I have seen war.
I have seen war on land and sea.
I have seen blood running from
the wounded.
I have seen men coughing out their
gassed lungs.
I have seen the dead in the mud.
I have seen cities destroyed.
I have seen 200 limping, exhausted
men come out of line—the survivors
of a regiment of 1,000 that went
forward 48 hours before.
I have seen children starving.
I have seen the agony of mothers and wives.
I hate war.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
“How is the world ruled and led to war?
Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.”
Karl Kraus
“Each Javelin round costs $80,000, and
the idea that it’s fired by a guy who doesn’t make that in a year at a guy who doesn’t make that in a lifetime is somehow so outrageous it almost makes the
war seem winnable.”
Sebastian Junger, “War”
“But what are a hundred million deaths?
When one has served in a war, one hardly knows what a dead man is, after a while.
And since a dead man has no substance unless one has actually seen him dead,
a hundred million corpses broadcast through history are no more than a puff
of smoke in the imagination.”
Albert Camus
“I have never advocated war except
as means of peace, so seek peace,
but prepare for war.
Because war…
War never changes.
War is like winter and winter is coming.”
Ulysses S Grant
“I do not say that there is no glory
to be gained [in war];
but it is not personal glory.
In itself, no cause was ever more glorious than that of men who struggle, not to conquer territory, not to gather spoil,
not to gratify ambition, but for freedom,
for religion, for hearth and home, and to revenge the countless atrocities inflicted upon them by their oppressors.”
G. A. HENTY
“World War I was the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that
has ever taken place on earth.
Any writer who said otherwise lied,
So the writers either wrote propaganda, shut up, or fought.”
Ernest Hemingway
“In peace, children inter their parents;
war violates the order of natureand
causes parents to inter their children.”
Herodotus
“Perpetual peace is a futile dream.”
Gen. George S. Patton
“Such then is the human condition,
that to wish greatness for one’s country
is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.”
Voltaire
“It is precisely that requirement
ofshared worship that has been the principal source of suffering for individual manand the human race since
the beginning of history.
In their efforts to impose universal worship, men have unsheathed their swords
and killed one another.
They have invented gods and challenged each other:
“Discard your gods and worship mineor
I will destroy both your godsand you!”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”
What a terrible thing war is,
what a terrible thing!”
Leo Tolstoy, “War and Peace”
“When you think about new-born babies being killed in our own lifetime,’ he said,
‘all the efforts of culture seem worthless.
What have people learned from all
our Goethes and Bachs?
To kill babies?”
Vasily Grossman, “Life and Fate”
“Those of us who are most genuinely repelled by war and violence are also
those who are most likely to decide
that some things, after all,
are worth fighting for.”
Christopher Hitchens, “The Quotable Hitchens from Alcohol to Zionism: The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens”
“I have never advocated war
except as a means of peace.”
Ulysses S. Grant
“It is of the greatest important in this world that a man should know himself, and the measure of his own strength and means; and he who knows that he has not a genius for fighting must learn how to govern
by the arts of peace.”
Machiavelli, Niccolo
“War has no longer the justification that
it makes for the survival of the fittest;
it involves the survival of the less fit.
The idea that the struggle between nations is a part of the evolutionary law of man’s advance involves a profound misreading
of the biological analogy.
The warlike nations do not inherit the earth; they represent
the decaying human element.”
Norman Angell, “The Great Illusion”
“Homo sapiens!
The name itself was an irony.
They had not been wise at all,
but incredibly stupid.
Lords of the Earth with their great gray brains, their thinking minds had placed them above all other forms of life.
Yet it had not been thought that compelled them to act, but emotion.
From the dawn of their evolution they had killed, and conquered, and subdued.
They had committed atrocities on others
of their kind, ravaged the land, polluted
and destroyed, left millions to starve
in Third World countries, and finished
it all with a nuclear holocaust.
The mutants were right.
Intelligent creatures did not commit genocide, or murder the environment
on which they were dependent.”
Louise Lawrence, “Children of the Dust”
“War: first, one hopes to win;
then one expects the enemy to lose;
then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering;
in the end, one is surprised that
everyone has lost.”
Karl Kraus
“War is unlike life.
It’s a denial of everything you learn life is.
And that’s why when you get finished with it, you see that if offers no lessons that can’t be bettered learned in civilian life.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from Latin: aurum) and atomic number 79, making it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally.
It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal in a pure form.
Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions.
Gold often occurs in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, veins, and alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver (as electrum), naturally alloyed with other metals like copper and palladium, and mineral inclusions such as within pyrite.
Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides).
A relatively rare element, gold is a precious metal that has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history.
Still, gold coins ceased to be minted as a circulating currency in the 1930s, and the world gold standard was abandoned for a fiat currency system after 1971.
As of 2017, the world’s largest gold producer by far was China, with 440 tonnes per year.
A total of around 201,296 tonnes of gold exists above ground, as of 2020. This is equal to a cube with each side measuring roughly 21.7 meters (71 ft).
Gold’s high malleability, ductility, resistance to corrosion and most other chemical reactions, and conductivity of electricity have led to its continued use in corrosion-resistant electrical connectors in all types of computerized devices (its chief industrial use).
The world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments and 10% in industry.
Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, and tooth restoration. Certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine.
F I A T
Fiat money (from Latin: fiat, “let it be done”) is a type of money that is not backed by any commodity such as gold or silver, and typically declared by a decree from the government to be legal tender.
Throughout history, fiat money was sometimes issued by local banks and other institutions. In modern times, fiat money is generally established by government regulation.
Yuan dynasty banknotes are a medieval form of fiat money
Fiat money does not have intrinsic value and does not have use value. It has value only because the people who use it as a medium of exchange agree on its value. They trust that it will be accepted by merchants and other people.
Fiat money is an alternative to commodity money, which is a currency that has intrinsic value because it contains a precious metal such as gold or silver which is embedded in the coin.
Fiat also differs from representative money, which is money that has intrinsic value because it is backed by and can be converted into a precious metal or another commodity.
Fiat money can look similar to representative money (such as paper bills), but the former has no backing, while the latter represents a claim on a commodity (which can be redeemed to a greater or lesser extent).
Government-issued fiat money banknotes were used first during the 11th century in China.
Fiat money started to predominate during the 20th century.
Money declared by a person, institution or government to be legal tender, meaning that it must be accepted in payment of a debt in specific circumstances.
State-issued money which is neither convertible through a central bank to anything else nor fixed in value in terms of any objective standard.
Money used because of government decree.
An otherwise non-valuable object that serves as a medium of exchange (also known as fiduciary money.)
The term fiat derives from the Latin word fiat, meaning “let it be done” used in the sense of an order, decree or resolution.
Bitcoin – Digital Gold
The most common, and best, ways to think about bitcoin is as “digital gold”.
Like gold, bitcoin doesn’t rely on a central issuer, can’t have its supply manipulated by any authority, and has fundamental properties long considered important for a monetary good and store of value.
Unlike gold, bitcoin is extremely easy and cheap to “transport”, and trivial to verify its authenticity.
Bitcoin is also “programmable”. This means custody of bitcoin can be extremely flexible. It can be split amongst a set of people (“key holders”), backed up and encrypted, or even frozen-in-place until a certain date in the future. This is all done without a central authority managing the process.
You can walk across a national border with bitcoin “stored” in your head by memorizing a key.
The similarities to gold, plus the unique features possible because bitcoin is purely digital, give it the “digital gold” moniker.
Sharing fundamental properties with gold means it shares use-cases with gold, such as hedging inflation and political uncertainty.
But being digital, bitcoin adds capabilities that are especially relevant in our modern electronic times.
The world does indeed need a digital version of gold.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
“This is a book I want every athlete, aspiring leader, entrepreneur, thinker and doer to read. Ryan Holiday is one of the most promising young writers of his generation.”
George Raveling, Hall of Fame Basketball Coach
“Ryan Holiday is one of his generation’s finest thinkers, and this book is his best yet.”
Steven Pressfield, author of “The War of Art” and “Gates of Fire“
“Ryan Holiday has written a brilliant and engaging book, well beyond his years… It is invaluable.”
Brian Koppelman, screenwriter and director, “Rounders”, “Ocean’s Thirteen” and “Billions”
Ego Is the Enemy
“While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive, visionary geniuses who remade the world in their image with sheer, almost irrational force, I’ve found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition.” – from the Prologue
Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy lies within: our ego. Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back.
The Ego is the Enemy draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to history. We meet fascinating figures like Howard Hughes, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, and Eleanor Roosevelt, all of whom reached the highest levels of power and success by conquering their own egos. Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well.
But why should we bother fighting ego in an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion? Armed with the lessons in this book, as Holiday writes, “you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.
RYAN HOLIDAY
Ryan Holiday is a strategist and writer. He dropped out of college at nineteen to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws of Power”, and later served as the director of marketing for American Apparel.
His company, Brass Check, has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors.
Holiday has written four previous books, most recently The Obstacle Is the Way, which has been translated into seventeen languages and has a cult following among NFL coaches, world-class athletes, TV personalities, political leaders, and others around the world.
He lives on a small ranch outside Austin, Texas.
Made with 💚 by Free Spirit
✌ & 💚
Did you find this article helpful?
If so, please consider a donation to help the evolution and development of more helpful articles in the future, and show your support for alternative articles.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
Timothy May on the cover of the second issue of Wired magazine with 2 fellow cypherpunks
Sadly, this past week we lost an icon that helped to spur the cypherpunk movement. Timothy May, who wrote The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto in 1988, lauched a movement that is still very prominent today.
For the uninitiated, a Crypto-Anarchist focuses on subverting the current laws and using new technologies to the benefit of the common man.
In the original manifesto, May says crypto-anarchy focuses on “encryption, digital money, anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero-knowledge, reputations, information markets, black markets, collapse of governments”.
The manifesto was written just before the first crypto wars began during the early 1990’s.
The governments of the world fiercely opposed the general public using cryptographic encryption protocols.
The idea that a normal citizen could completely hide what they say in an electronic message was their biggest concern.
The governments cited national security as a concern (We’ve heard this excuse used many times before).
RSA Security, a leading computer securty company founded by world-renowned cryptologists, created this poster against a hardware chip that used a US-government supplied encryption standard
The legislation of the anti-encryption laws would also affect payment processing technology. There was a large push back from tech companies that would have to deal with these issues first-hand.
The crypto wars of the 1990’s ended with the concession from the government that encryption was readily available around the world.
The public had won their first bout against the government surveillance state. Alongside the public, you had the cypherpunks and large tech companies that were all fighting a common threat.
There was not much of an issue in terms of encryption for quite a few more years.
Every few years afterward, the idea of backdoors into encryption schemes were brought up but nothing ever came about these new ideations.
The Crypto Wars Redux
The expansion of computational power and development of more efficient processing equipment closed the gap as to who can gain access to encryption software.
The widespread availabilty of software/hardware that can perform these cryptographic calculations involved in encryption and the ease of use has made it possible for the layman to encrypt their own personal messages, video calls,emails, and notes.
Encrypting an email with someone who has never imported a key to their keyring, or generated their own PGP public/private key pair is a thing of the past.
Many of the services that exist today offer these solutions out of the box. The process has become much easier for all parties involved.
Anyone that is now using this technology benefits from this on a privacy and security level.
With all parties benefitting, the leviathan rears its head once more. Australia has passed an anti-encryption bill that will force large tech companies to allow the Australian government to obtain hardware access(citing national security as a major reason).
Outrage has spilled out of the larger tech companies. The end-to-end zero knowledge messaging/calling app, Signal, has taken a stand against this bill.
This sounds very similar to the issues Tim May was battling with during the early days of the First Crypto War.
The cypherpunks came out on top and I’m sure this legislation will face a similar fate.
May’s Impact on the World
The imprint that Timothy May left on the world is profound. The mass adoption of encryption as well as cryptocurrencies shows just how far ahead of the times he was.
May urged the importance of privacy.
He insisted on the use of encryption to keep your communications private.
Currently on a majority of mobile phones there are applications that provide encrypted communications. Whatsapp uses the Signal protocol which was developed by cypherpunk Moxie Marlinspike.
The rise of cryptocurrencies is an ideal that May was very hopeful for.
May did come out against the anti-privacy issues of bitcoin.
There are projects that offer solutions for this privacy debate.
Much of the developer-base of these certain cryptocurrencies have their foundation based in the cypherpunk tradition.
The Cryptocurrencies that aim for a privacy by default mechanism are monero and the soon to launch GRIN which uses the Mimblewimble Protocol (To see an extremely entertaining introduction to the GRIN project via talk-to-text chat for privacy preservation, listen to the creator of Grin).
Zcash is moving in the direction of private by default and the superior cryptography of the ZK range proofs will help to create a very private cryptocurrency.
Cody WIlson and Amir Taaki who worked on projects focused on the crypto-anarchic tradition including Dark Wallet and Defense Distributed
The impact Tim May made on the world by helping to create a social movement shows the importance and strength of his ideals.
He has impacted a generation of people that are growing up in the digital age.
He influenced builders in the 21st century.
You have people creating new currencies, exposing government surveillance on a national scale, circumventing the broken bueracratic system by creating their own markets, anonymous internet protocols, as well as making encryption applicable to the common man (You can find a list of prominent cypherpunks here and also here).
There isn’t enough that can be said about the applications in which he believed could positively affect us.
May was cognizant of the encroaching all-seeing eye of the state but I believe we are in much better shape now than we’ve ever been.
There may be negative news about what we currently face as individuals, from the unprecedented surveillance of the Snowden leaks to the aforementioned Australian anti-encryption bill, but looking at the grand scheme of our daily lives, these tools and their functions have helped to create a much better day than May could have imagined in 1988.
He was a proponent for the industriousness of human nature to outpace the slow moving regulation that would try to bog down any progress.
You can listen here to what he thought people/creators should do when they develop ground breaking technology.
Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
Napoleon Hill was an American author in the area of the new thought movement who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature.
He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success.
His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is one of the best-selling books of all time (at the time of Hill’s death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold 20 million copies).
Hill’s works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success.
He became an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” is one of Hill’s hallmark expressions.
How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach of the average person, were the focal points of Hill’s books.
” The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE.
Keep this constantly in mind.
Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Desire
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
The Mind
” You are the master of your destiny.
You can influence, direct and control your own environment.
You can make your life what you want it to be. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
The Master of your destiny
” 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. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Defeat
” Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right’.
Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along. “
Napoleon Hill
Time will never be just right’
” When your desires are strong enough, you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve. “
Napoleon Hill
Desires and superhuman powers
” A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. “
Napoleon Hill
Quitter vs. Winner
” The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does. “
Napoleon Hill
More than you’re paid
” Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds. “
Napoleon Hill
Limitations
” Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Happiness
” An educated man is not, necessarily, one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge.
An educated man is one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
An educated man
” Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
The Seed
” More gold had been mined from the mind of men than the earth it self. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Mind gold
” A goal is a dream with a deadline. “
Napoleon Hill
Goal
” Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth.
Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them.
If you are influenced by “opinions” when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Opinions…cheapest commodities on earth !
” We refuse to believe that which we don’t understand. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Refuse to believe…
” You are entitled to know that two entities occupy your body.
One of these entities is motivated by and responds to the impulse of fear.
The other is motivated by and responds to the impulse of faith.
Will you be guided by faith or will you allow fear to overtake you? “
Napoleon Hill – “Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success”
Fear
” Remember that your dominating thoughts attract, through a definite law
of nature, by the shortest and most convenient route, their physical counterpart.
Be careful what your thoughts dwell
upon. “
Napoleon Hill – “Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success”
Law of Nature
” IF – and this is the greatest of them all – I had the courage to see myself as I really am, I would find out what is wrong with me, and correct it, then I might have a chance to profit by my mistakes and learn something from the experience of others,for I know that there is something WRONG with me, or I would now be where I WOULD HAVE BEEN IF I had spent more time analyzing my weaknesses, and less time building alibis to cover them. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Courage to see thyself
” First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality.
The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. “
Napoleon Hill
Imagination
” The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun.
It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun. “
Napoleon Hill
Strongest oak
” Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire brings a small amount of heat. “
Napoleon Hill
Weak desires
” Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel. “
Napoleon Hill
Persistance
” A genius is simply one who has taken full possession of his own mind and directed it toward objectives of his own choosing, without permitting outside influences to discourage or mislead him. “
Napoleon Hill
Genius
” Neglecting to broaden their view has kept some people doing one thing all their
lives. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Broaden your view
” If you are not learning while you’re earning, you are cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation. “
Napoleon Hill
Learning while you’re earning
” Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent. “
Napoleon Hill
Silence
” One who has loved truly, can never lose entirely.
Love is whimsical and temperamental. Its nature is ephemeral, and transitory.
It comes when it pleases,and goes away without warning.
Accept and enjoy it while it remains, but spend no time worrying about its departure.
Worry will never bring it back. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Love
” TELL THE WORLD WHAT YOU INTEND TO DO, BUT FIRST SHOW IT.
This is the equivalent of saying “deeds, and not words, are what count most. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
” Remember,too,that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start,and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they “arrive”.
The turning point in the lives of those who succeed usually comes at some moment of crisis,through which they are introduced to their “other selves”. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
The turning point
“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond
their greatest failure.”
Napoleon Hill
One step beyond your greatest failure
” Awake,arise,and assert yourself,
you dreamers of the world.
Your star is now in ascendancy. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Dreamers of the world
” Most so called FAILURES are only temporary defeats. “
Napoleon Hill – “Law of Success”
Temporary defeats
” Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. “
Napoleon Hill
Effort and reward
” Fears are nothing more than a state of mind. “
Napoleon Hill – “Law of Success”
Fears
” Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past or how lofty your aims and hopes may be. “
Napoleon Hill
The mind
” You are entitled to know that two entities occupy your body.
One of these entities is motivated by and responds to the impulse of fear.
The other is motivated by and responds to the impulse of faith.
Will you be guided by faith or will you allow fear to overtake you? “
Napoleon Hill – “Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success”
Faith vs Fear
” The only limitation is that which one sets up in one’s own mind. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Limitation
” Every man is what he is, because of the dominating thoughts which he permits to occupy his mind. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Dominating thoughts
” There is no substitute for persistence.
The person who makes persistence his watch-word, discovers that “Old Man Failure” finally becomes tired, and makes his departure.
Failure cannot cope with persistence. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Persistance
” The most practical of all methods for controlling the mind is the habit of keeping it busy with a definite purpose, backed by a definite plan.”
And
“A man whose mind is filled with fear not only destroys his own chances of intelligent action, but he transmits these destructive vibrations to the minds of all who come in contact with him, and destroys, also, their chances.”
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Mind busy with definite purpose
” Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. “
Napoleon Hill
3 P’s
“Success requires no explanations.
Failure permits no alibis.”
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Success
” He had nothing to start with, except the capacity to know what he wanted, and the determination to stand by that desire until he realized it. “
Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
Determination and Desire
” Nature will not tolerate idleness or vacuums of any sort.
All space must be and is filled with something . . .
When the individual does not use the brain for the expression of positive, creative thoughts, nature fills the vacuum by forcing the brain to act upon negative thoughts.
Napoleon Hill – “Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success”
Nature
” In parting, I would remind you that “Life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite you is time.
If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time.
You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate decisions! “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Life is a checkboard
” Close friends and relatives, while not meaning to do so, often handicap one through “opinions” and sometimes through ridicule, which is meant to be humorous.
Thousands of men and women carry inferiority complexes with them all through life, because some well-meaning, but ignorant person destroyed their confidence through “opinions” or ridicule. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Opinions
” If you must be careless with your possessions, let it be in connection with material things.
Your mind is your spiritual estate!
Protect and use it with the care to which Divine Royalty is entitled.
You were given a WILL-POWER for this purpose. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Your mind is your spiritual estate
” Deliberately seek the company of people who influence you to think and act for yourself. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Company of people who influence you
” Remember, the thoughts that you think and the statements you make regarding yourself determine your mental attitude.
If you have a worthwhile objective, find the one reason why you can achieve it rather than hundreds of reasons why you can’t. “
Napoleon Hill
Worthwhile objective
” Failure always is a blessing when it forces one to acquire knowledge or to build habits that lead to the achievement of one’s major purpose in life. “
Napoleon Hill – “Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success”
Failure
” All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination.
Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth. “
Napoleon Hill
Imagination – the workshop of your mind
“Knowledge has no value except that which can be gained from its application towards some worthy end.”
Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
Knowledge
” The ladder of success is never crowded at the top. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Ladder of success
” There is one weakness in people for which there is no remedy.
It is the universal weakness of LACK OF AMBITION! “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Lack of Ambition
“One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.”
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Temporary defeat
” Love is essential for happiness, but the person who loves so deeply that his or her happiness is placed entirely in the hands of another, resembles the little lamb who crept into the den of the nice, gentle little wolf and begged to be permitted to lie down and go to sleep, or the canary. “
Napoleon Hill – “The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons”
Love
” The leaders in every walk of life decide quickly, and firmly.
That is the major reason why they are leaders.
The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Know where you’re going
” ASK any wise man what he most desires and he will, more than likely, say “more wisdom. “
Napoleon Hill – “The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons”
More Wisdom
” You have a brain and mind of your own.
Use it, and reach your own decisions. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
You have a brain…Use it!
Thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire…
Napoleon Hill
Thoughts are things
” Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat.”
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
No retreat
” The mind has a definite way of clothing one’s thoughts in appropriate physical equivalents.
Think in terms of poverty and you will live in poverty.
Think in terms of opulence and you will attract opulence.
Through the eternal law of harmonious attraction, one’s thoughts always clothe themselves in material things appropriate unto their nature. “
Napoleon Hill – “You Can Work Your Own Miracles”
The Mind
” No man is your enemy, no man is your friend, every man is your teacher. “
Napoleon Hill – “The Prosperity Bible: The Greatest Writings of All Time on the Secrets to Wealth and Prosperity”
Every man is your teacher
” INSUFFICIENT EDUCATION.
This is a handicap that may be overcome with comparative ease.
Experience has proven that the best-educated people are often those who are known as ‘self-made’ or self-educated.
It takes more than a university degree to make one a person of education.
Any person who is educated has learned to get whatever they want in life without violating the rights of others.
Education consists not so much of knowledge, but of knowledge effectively and persistently applied.
People are paid not merely for what they know, but more particularly for what they do with what they know. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Self-Education
” Then accumulated knowledge is not wisdom?
A Great heavens, no!
If knowledge were wisdom, the achievements of science would not have been converted into implements of destruction. “
Napoleon Hill – “Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success”
Knowledge vs Wisdom
” The entire world is made up of only two things, energy and matter.
In elementary physics we learn that neither matter nor energy (the only two realities known to man) can be created nor destroyed.
Both matter and energy can be transformed, but neither can be destroyed.
Life is energy, if it is anything.
If neither energy nor matter can be destroyed, of course life cannot be destroyed.
Life, like other forms of energy, may be passed through various processes of transition, or change, but it cannot be destroyed.
Death is mere transition.
If death is not mere change, or transition, then nothing comes after death except a long, eternal, peaceful sleep, and sleep is nothing to be feared.
Thus you may wipe out, forever, the fear of Death. “
Napoleon Hill – “Think and Grow Rich”
Fear of Death
” ‘Master Mind’, meaning a mind that is developed through the harmonious co-operation of two or more people who ally themselves for the purpose of accomplishing any given task. “
Napoleon Hill – “The Law of Success”
“Master Mind”
” KNOWLEDGE will not attract money, unless it is organized, and intelligently directed, through practical PLANS OF ACTION, to the DEFINITE END of accumulation of money.
Lack of understanding of this fact has been the source of confusion to millions of people who falsely believe that “knowledge is power.”
It is nothing of the sort!
Knowledge is only potential power.
It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end. “
If so, please consider a donation to help the evolution and development of more helpful articles in the future, and show your support for alternative articles.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on wich … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that they … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
” It isn’t obvious that the world had to work this way.
But somehow the universe smiles on encryption.”
Julian Assange
Nobody yet knows for sure if the universe’s smile is genuine or not.
It is possible that our assumption of mathematical asymmetries is wrong and we find that P actually equals NP, or we find surprisingly quick solutions to specific problems which we currently assume to be hard.
If that should be the case, cryptography as we know it will cease to exist, and the implications would most likely change the world beyond recognition.
“Vires in Numeris”
=
“Strength in Numbers”
epii
Vires in numeris is not only a catchy motto used by bitcoiners.
The realization that there is an unfathomable strength to be found in numbers is a profound one.
Understanding this, and the inversion of existing power balances which it enables changed my view of the world and the future which lies ahead of us.
One direct result of this is the fact that you don’t have to ask anyone for permission to participate in Bitcoin.
There is no page to sign up, no company in charge, no government agency to send application forms to.
Simply generate a large number and you are pretty much good to go.
The central authority of account creation is mathematics.
Bitcoin is built upon our best understanding of reality.
While there are still many open problems in physics, computer science, and mathematics, we are pretty sure about some things.
That there is an asymmetry between finding solutions and validating the correctness of these solutions is one such thing.
That computation needs energy is another one.
In other words: finding a needle in a haystack is harder than checking if the pointy thing in your hand is indeed a needle or not.
And finding the needle takes work.
The vastness of Bitcoin’s address space is truly mind-boggling.
The number of private keys even more so. It is fascinating how much of our modern world boils down to the improbability of finding a needle in an unfathomably large haystack.
I am now more aware of this fact than ever.
Bitcoin taught me that there is strength in numbers.
• Think and Grow Rich (1937) • The Law of Success (1928) • Outwitting the Devil (1938)
Spouse :
Florence Elizabeth Horner (1910–1935)
Rosa Lee Beeland (1937–1940?)
Annie Lou Norman (1943–1970)
Children : 3
Hill is, in modern times, a controversial figure.
Accused of fraud, modern historians also doubt many of his claims, such as that he met Andrew Carnegie and that he was an attorney.
Gizmodo has called him "the most famous conman you've probably never heard of".
Did you find this article helpful?
If so, please consider a donation to help the evolution and development of more helpful articles in the future, and show your support for alternative articles.
What Is Inflation? Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in … Continue reading Learn about Inflation Folks!→
Hy there my fellow citizens of this amazingly beautiful Mother Earth of… Not Ours !!! We tend to forget that and treat it as if we would have another habitable sphere on … Continue reading Free Spirit’s Library→
The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in … Continue reading What is Bretton Woods ?!?→
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, … Continue reading Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo-1994→
20 Rules for Security in bitcoin Here’s a short list of common sense Rules, to use and implement for a better Security while using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In the hopes that … Continue reading 20 Security Rules for bitcoin→
BitHouse 