Accomplishment Quotes

“When people enjoy problem-solving as a means of self-validation and accomplishment, we must be watchful. What if they frantically construct situations to concoct solutions for problems they like to create? What if their solutions appear to make conditions worse than before? The white knights of the world improvers, who don’t hesitate to destroy nature and cultural heritages, can be a threatening problem on their own when they deteriorate the quality of our lifestyle and environment. ("Why step out of nature" ?)”
― Erik Pevernagie

“The realms of dating, marriage, and sex are all marketplaces, and we are the products. Some may bristle at the idea of people as products on a marketplace, but this is an incredibly prevalent dynamic. Consider the labor marketplace, where people are also the product. Just as in the labor marketplace, one party makes an offer to another, and based on the terms of this offer, the other person can choose to accept it or walk. What makes the dating market so interesting is that the products we are marketing, selling, buying, and exchanging are essentially our identities and lives.

As with all marketplaces, every item in stock has a value, and that value is determined by its desirability. However, the desirability of a product isn’t a fixed thing—the desirability of umbrellas increases in areas where it is currently raining while the desirability of a specific drug may increase to a specific individual if it can cure an illness their child has, even if its wider desirability on the market has not changed.

In the world of dating, the two types of desirability we care about most are:
- Aggregate Desirability: What the average demand within an open marketplace would be for a relationship with a particular person.
- Individual Desirability: What the desirability of a relationship with an individual is from the perspective of a specific other individual.

Imagine you are at a fish market and deciding whether or not to buy a specific fish:
- Aggregate desirability = The fish’s market price that day
- Individual desirability = What you are willing to pay for the fish

Aggregate desirability is something our society enthusiastically emphasizes, with concepts like “leagues.” Whether these are revealed through crude statements like, “that guy's an 8,” or more politically correct comments such as, “I believe she may be out of your league,” there is a tacit acknowledgment by society that every individual has an aggregate value on the public dating market, and that value can be judged at a glance. When what we have to trade on the dating market is often ourselves, that means that on average, we are going to end up in relationships with people with an aggregate value roughly equal to our own (i.e., individuals “within our league”). Statistically speaking, leagues are a real phenomenon that affects dating patterns. Using data from dating websites, the University of Michigan found that when you sort online daters by desirability, they seem to know “their place.” People on online dating sites almost never send a message to someone less desirable than them, and on average they reach out to prospects only 25% more desirable than themselves.

The great thing about these markets is how often the average desirability of a person to others is wildly different than their desirability to you. This gives you the opportunity to play arbitrage with traits that other people don’t like, but you either like or don’t mind. For example, while society may prefer women who are not overweight, a specific individual within the marketplace may prefer obese women, or even more interestingly may have no preference. If a guy doesn’t care whether his partner is slim or obese, then he should specifically target obese women, as obesity lowers desirability on the open marketplace, but not from his perspective, giving him access to women who are of higher value to him than those he could secure within an open market.”
― Malcolm Collins, The Pragmatist's Guide to Relationships: Ruthlessly Optimized Strategies for Dating, Sex, and Marriage

“Little things
touch us
build up
fill us
with big feelings,
big accomplishments,
big costs.

So there is nothing
little.”
― Shellen Lubin

“You can disagree on everything but still work together on one thing... if that one thing is important enough.”
― Bono, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story

“Here she was on the other side of the grating—here she was at last, on the outside—looking in!”
― Mary Norton, The Borrowers

“Reaping what you sow is very different, and yet, it is the only thing that can be counted on ... that careful application of self to tasks, continuing to learn from the world and digging deep to learn more about the self, the investment of self in ways of being and doing, bringing about deep and fundamental accomplishments and changes.”
― Shellen Lubin

“Like the house committee investigation—
like the preceding 45-led years
since the escalator descent
into the madness of the infant king,
like the faulty re-emergence
in fits and starts from
the miasma of disease and its wake,
the level of stress
the prevalence of anxiety
moment to moment, day to day
was immense and incessant—
seemingly unbearable—so great
I thought so many times I could not
continue to withstand it
sustain it and yet
and yet it had to be done.

One insane venture
accomplished.
Lessons learned, both
exquisitely beautiful and exquisitely
painful.”
― Shellen Lubin

“We all appear to ourselves frustrated in our old age...because we cling to everything so much. But in reality we are still fulfilling our lives.”
― Muriel Spark, Memento Mori

“Work hard enough and your dreams will become memories.”
― Arian Adeli Koodehi

“To say 'I did,' you must start with 'I am,' 'I can,' and 'I will.”
― Kurian Mathew Tharakan

“The accomplishment of every extraordinary deed
consists in having a dream and believing in it.”
― Augusto Branco, Vida. Já Perdoei Erros Quase Imperdoáveis

“A good day for me ends with completing something, looking at that thing all nice and finished, and letting a sense of accomplishment flood my nervous system.”
― Mary Laura Philpott, I Miss You When I Blink: Essays

“Be cautious of those who applaud your accomplishment. And never lose those who walk by you in hopelessness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“When one doubts accomplishment is impossible then death occurs before birth.”
― Randolph – (Gandolfo) – 1999

“Logic is not the end of the story as that single realization is logic’s greatest gift and ultimate accomplishment.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Lizzy was so busy melting into a puddle watching Jack interact with Elliott that she had completely forgotten about the task at hand. What was she thinking? There were tiny boxes to check off!”
― Jayci Lee, Booked on a Feeling

“You know, this idea that individuals accomplish great things is a lot of moonshine, really. What you do is work along with others on a general line, and mankind moves along, but slowly.”
― Colgate W. Darden, Colgate Darden: Conversations with Guy Friddell

“Collective genius without structural organization is like a pack of wild cats, they are untamable and nothing gets accomplished.”
― Dr. Lucas D. Shallua

“Ain't there nothing sapiens can't do,
Ain't no mountain sapiens can't climb.
Ain't no darkness sapiens can't conquer,
Ain't no division sapiens can't undivide.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“Dreams make life on earth worthwhile. Without dreams, life would be meaningless.”
― Clement Ogedegbe, DREAMS DON'T DIE, PEOPLE GIVE UP ON THEM

“The road to the realization of dreams is often not an easy road; it is a checkered road with many obstacles, hurdles and hindrances. One must be ready to withstand and overcome those hurdles if one desires to fulfill his or her dreams.”
― Clement Ogedegbe, DREAMS DON'T DIE, PEOPLE GIVE UP ON THEM

“There are no true dreamers of day who achieved their great dreams without first travelling difficult roads. To achieve beautiful dreams, one must be prepared to travel difficult roads.”
― Clement Ogedegbe, DREAMS DON'T DIE, PEOPLE GIVE UP ON THEM

“He lacks determination and perseverance who, tries a thing once and concludes that it is impossible to achieve. Such a man would never achieve anything of worth in his life.”
― Clement Ogedegbe, DREAMS DON'T DIE, PEOPLE GIVE UP ON THEM

“It does not matter as much how long a dream takes to be fulfilled; what matters is that men who are able to run with it are found to bring it to fruition.”
― Clement Ogedegbe, DREAMS DON'T DIE, PEOPLE GIVE UP ON THEM

“Ambition is the herald of dawn despite the most evident dusk.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“Happily-ever-after is not adequately summed up in the hero’s journey. Even if you do ace every quest, defeat every foe, and obtain your magic castle, it will never be enough. Even the accomplishment of our dreams will not satisfy for long, and even our dream girl or guy is going let us down. But God’s love never fails.”
― Michael J Heil, Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose

“Do you want to accomplish something difficult? Then go to the very edge of a cliff and stand there without thinking about the cliff!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“I guess not, but who says creativity it the be all and end all? Who says that our accomplishments are the only true measure of what is important in our lives? Perhaps there are other lives worth living, other ways of being in the world.”
― Nick Cave, Faith, Hope and Carnage

“Faithfulness doesn’t define success as a place reached or a goal accomplished, but as a consistent lifestyle lived and a heart place sought.”
― Brandon Michael West, It Is Not Your Business to Succeed: Your Role in Leadership When You Can't Control Your Outcomes

“I rushed and rushed and
now, here I am,
standing on the edge of
nothing.

It doesn’t help:
“At least I got here quickly.”

It doesn’t work:
“I’m not dead yet.”
― Vironika Wilde, Love and Gaslight