Quote Of The Week

2nd Quote of the Week 21 “Women marry men hoping they will change, and men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed. ” ― often misattributed to Albert Einstein Triggered by a conversation while hiking. Variations: “ Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed. ” “ That’s the trouble about marriage. Women always hope it’s going to change the husband. Men always hope it won’t change their wives—and both are disappointed! ” ― from the play “Cynara” by H. M. Harwood and R. Gore-Browne

Quote of the Week 21 “Behind every beautiful thing, there's been some kind of pain. ” ― Bob Dylan (" Not Dark Yet ", song lyrics)      

Quote of the Week 20 “ The map is not the territory. ” ―  Alfred Korzybski   Triggered b y the growing gap between how things are described and how they actually are . Well, actually triggered by a road trip through the alps.   See also:  various quotes on perception vs. reality .   Quote of the Week 6/2020 " All models are wrong, but some models are useful. " ― George Box  

Quote of the Week 19 “ Doubt everything. ” ― Karl Marx   (his motto : " De omnibus dubitandum " by René Descartes ) “ An allem ist zu zweifeln. ” Triggered by the i nscription on the sidewalk of my & his native town  across the street of his  birthplace .

Quote of the Week 18 “ Dear Stone, I win. ” ― Paper Triggered by the use of the quote in Ronen Steinke‘s book „ Meinungsfreiheit “. Original wording: “ Dear Rock, I win. ” ― Paper

Quote of the Week 17 “ The future's uncertain, and the end is always near.” ―  The Doors , Roadhouse Blues (Lyrics) “Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, baby, roll,  Let it roll, all night long.”

Quote of the Week 16 “ Nothing is swifter than rumor.” ―    Titus Livius  ( Livy ) Inspired by  A. Paul Weber's  Das Gerücht  -  interpreted in Keith Haring style: Related: “ A  lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on. ”

Quote of the Week 15 “ You can see AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” ― inspired by  Robert Solow ( Productivity Paradox rephrased) Triggered by Jon Hartley 's tweet : It also seems to be the case that AI adoption, while causing significant productivity changes in certain sectors, isn't showing up in macro productivity numbers yet. To rephrase Bob Solow: "You can see AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics." https://t.co/eUFx77EL1G — Jon Hartley (@Jon_Hartley_) March 27, 2026 Original quote: “ You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” ― Robert Solow

Quote of the Week 14 “ Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ―  Leonard Thiessen   Triggered by the mentioning of the Apple ad Apple II: Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication in  Apple: The First 50 Years by David Pogue: Sometimes misattributed to Leonardo da Vinci . Related: Quote of the Week 29/2024 "Simple can be harder than complex." ―  Steve Jobs Quote of the Week 4/2015 "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." ―  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Quote of the Week 13 “ The prompt doesn’t make the image;   the eye for the extraordinary in the ordinary does.” ― Alan Bipe     Original German quote : “ Nicht der Prompt macht das Bild, sondern die Fähigkeit, das Besondere im Beliebigen zu erkennen. ” ― Gemini AI

Quote of the Week 12 “ The 'yes' needs the 'no' in order to hold up against the 'no'.” ―  Jürgen Habermas  (paraphrased)     Original German  paraphrase : “ Das Ja braucht das Nein, um gegen das Nein bestehen zu können. ”   The Power of the Productive "No" At first glance, this quote by the influential German philosopher  Jürgen Habermas  might sound like a riddle. However, it captures the heartbeat of a healthy democracy and meaningful conversation. For Habermas, a "Yes" (agreement) only has value if the person saying it had the genuine freedom to say "No" (dissent). If you aren't allowed to disagree, your agreement isn't a choice—it’s just submission. In his theory of  Communicative Action , Habermas argues that: True Consensus  must be "stress-tested" by counter-arguments. The "No"  acts as a filter that strains out weak ideas. The "Yes"  that emerges is stronger because it "held up...

Quote of the Week 11 “ To define is to limit.” ― Oscar Wilde ,  The Picture of Dorian Gray     Full quote : “What are you?" "To define is to limit.”            

Quote of the Week 10 “ To explain is to jam people's thinking.” ― Etel Adnan , Shifting the Silence     Triggered by the exibition " Shifting the Silence. Die Stille verschieben "  at the Lenbachhaus, Munich.

Quote of the Week 9 “ Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.” ― Michael Jackson   Related: Quote of the Week 50 / 2020 " Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it. " ―  Jonathan Swift Full quote :

Quote of the Week 8 “ I may not always be right, but I’m never wrong.” ― attributed to  Samuel Goldwyn Triggered by a recent  QuoteInvestigator  review.

Quote of the Week 7 “ Don’t believe everything you think. ” ―  Sidney K. Bennett Triggered by a recent QuoteInvestigator review. Variants: “ Don’t believe everything you think, especially today. ” “ Don’t believe anything you think and only half what you know. ” Related : “ Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” ―  Edgar Allan Poe (Short story “ The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether ”)

Quote of the Week 6 “ A solution looking for a problem has found an artificial problem looking for a solution. ” ― Alan Bipe On the use of blockchain technology for Agentic AI .  

Quote of the Week 5 “ Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.” ― Charles de Gaulle Triggered by the recent Quote Investigator research. 

Quote of the Week 4 “ We both step and do not step into the same river, we both are and are not.” ― Heraclitus Triggered by the reference to a variation of the quote in WDR 5 - Das philosophische Radio Podcast with  Heinz-Michael Bartling: Weisheit und Wandel   (01/05/2026) . Related (see Wikipedia for details): You cannot step into the same river twice Since Plato, Heraclitus's theory of flux has been associated with the metaphor of a flowing river, which cannot be stepped into twice. [ 57 ] [ as ]  This fragment from Heraclitus's writings has survived in three different forms: [ 56 ] "On those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow" –  Arius Didymus , quoted in  Stobaeus [ at ] "We both step and do not step into the same river, we both are and are not" –  Heraclitus Homericus ,  Homeric Allegories [ au ] "It is not possible to step into the same river twice" –  Plutarch ,  On the E at Delphi [ av ] The classicis...

Quote of the Week 3 " Aging is an extraordinary process whereby you become the person you always should have been. " ― David Bowie  (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016 )   Related :  "Age doesn't bother me. It's the lack of years left that weighs far heavier on me than the age that I am."