shortsightedness Quotes

When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental — far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns.

When a war breaks out, people say: "It's too stupid; it can't last long." But though a war may well be "too stupid," that doesn't prevent its lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.

Women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important.

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

I had an occasional flash of understanding, but then got selfishly wrapped up again in my own problems and pleasures.

It’s very hard to write regulations that will prevent people from acting foolishly—particularly when acting foolishly has recently made them a lot of money.

The Englishman is too apt to neglect the present good in preparing against the possible evil.

Rash indeed is he who reckons on the morrow, or happily on days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past.

Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.

...the most dangerous shortsightedness consists in underestimating the mediocre.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

While you're trying to save your face, you're losing your ass.

In the abundance of water - the fool is thirsty

Only people who lack wisdom would say that a project should be pursued even if it leads to wanton destruction of forests.

We shall have to fight the politician who remembers only that the unborn have no votes and that since posterity has done nothing for us we need do nothing for posterity.

Only the stupidest calves choose their own butcher.

Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves - and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.

We have a tendency in America to deal with foreign affairs on a day by day basis. We are so saturated with facts that we do no look at a longer, broader picture.

Come what may, I am bound to think that all things are ordered for the best; though when the good is a furlong off, and we with our beetle eyes can only see three inches, it takes some confidence in general principles to pull us through.

Artificial intelligence cannot solve the problem of not knowing what the hell you're doing and not really caring one way or the other. It's not a solution for shortsightedness and lack of transparency.

Men of ill judgment ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.

Politicians start wars, but it's young men who wash themselves with blood because of the politicians' shortsightedness.

No man sees far, most see no farther than their noses.

People thought he was a glutton for punishment, that he liked getting dumped. But it wasn't like that. He could just never see anything coming, and as he lay on the solid, uneven ground with Hassan pressing too hard on his forehead, Colin Singleton's distance from his glasses made him realize the problem: myopia. He was nearsighted. The future lay before him, inevitable but invisible.

My desperation for UKIP to do well meant that I really packed the diary and the day in a way that, frankly, wasn't very bright.