Wattree’s Pearls of Limited Wisdom
God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think, so the pursuit of knowledge should be a lifelong endeavor and used as a primary assessment of all men. But we should never confuse credentials with knowledge, because some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores, while some of the weakest minds I’ve ever known roamed the halls of academia in pursuit of credentials over knowledge.
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*Self-Esteem: Never Doubt Yourself. You should always dedicate yourself to truth, and be free of ugliness, mean-spiritedness, and spite.
Then when others hate you, you know it's due to their ugliness and aversion to truth, not your own.
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*Never be afraid of failure. The only reason you can walk is because you got tired of falling down.
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*The greatest lesson in wisdom, intelligence, and class is the understanding that one doesn't corner the market on any of them.
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*Intrinsic to every zealot's passion for justice lies the seeds of tyranny.
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*An efficient thinker gives truth priority over ideology, while ideologues give ideology priority over truth.
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*The contemplative must always endure the pestilence of mediocrity.
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*The petty is forced to view life through a microscope in order to find their virtue.
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*Wit without wisdom is a waste.
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*An unexamined life is a waste of skin.
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*Socialism: Any government policy that impugns my right to swindle others.
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* Freedom: The right to deprive others of their rights, freedom, and equality.
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* Religion: The pursuit of God's approval to hate all those who don't look, think, and act like myself.
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* Faith: The embrace of something that doesn't make sense, but it's convenient for me to believe.
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*History: The romanticized account of ordinary men engaged in routine stupidity.
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*American History: The often exaggerated, and invariably sanitized account of ordinary men committing unconscionable atrocities in the name of God.
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*Seek to become your own hero, and never allow anyone to remove your cape.
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*To Black people: The establishment doesn't recognize the power of your intellect. Use that to your advantage, because your history lies before you.
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*The very rules designed to curb the excesses of irresponsibility, also tend to restrict genius within the boundaries of mediocrity.
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*Ask not, what your country can do for you. Ask, what YOU can do for yourself.
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*Hostility is a sign of a weak and frustrated mind.
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*There are only two kinds of people in this world - good people, and bad people - and ignorance is the dividing line between the two.
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*The only true road to perfect fulfillment is dedicating your life to becoming your own hero.
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*Without mistakes we would never grow; so we shouldn't mourn our mistakes, we should celebrate our growth.
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*You must recognize who you are, to visualize what you can become.
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*The difference between a discussion and a debate is in a discussion both parties have the maturity to understand that since neither corners the market on either wisdom, knowledge, or intelligence, the point of the encounter is to share their respective points of view - not to win, but to learn.
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*Money is the root of small people.
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*Never seek recognition. Always seek excellence, and allow recognition to seek out you.
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*What an individual says is meaningless - always watch what they do.
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*When you choose to live in a fantasy, you're forced to view reality as a myth.
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*You can either speak the truth for the sake of humanity, or be popular. You cannot do both.
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*Efficient thought requires that we first, see life as it is, and only then, as we would have it.
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*There is no status more lonely than that of an exceptional Black man - he’s hated by the White establishment because he’s a threat to the status quo, and he’s hated by the Black "aristocracy" because he’s a pie in the face of their delusions of grandeur.
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*The subconscious mind doesn't deal in self-assessment, so what you tell it you are, it believes, and begins to work on that assumption.
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*There is no status more lonely than that of an exceptional Black man - he’s hated by the White establishment because he’s a threat to the status quo, and he’s hated by the Black "aristocracy" because he’s a pie in the face of their delusions of grandeur.
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*The subconscious mind doesn't deal in self-assessment, so what you tell it you are, it believes, and begins to work on that assumption.
*You are what you think, so if you refuse to think, you're nothing.
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*We all have a burning desire to impress others with who we are, but more often than not we try to express that need through what we have, and there's a huge difference between the two.
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*Pseudo-intellectual: One who imparts common knowledge like he's telling you something new.
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*American Exceptionalism: "Of course we believe in the Bible, EXCEPT when it's in conflict with our greed, prejudice, and self-interest."
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*It's one thing to feel superior, that's merely high self-esteem, but when you begin to believe it, that's arrogance.
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*Guns are a metaphor for penises, and "American exceptionalism" is a sexual fantasy.
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*Waiting on happiness to make you happy will insure an unhappy existence. Be happy now!
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*Never confuse hedonism with happiness.
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*The only mature form of competition is against you're last best effort.
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*God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think - but fish have sense enough to adhere to their nature.
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*Never give anyone else's ability to think priority over your own.
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*It's not the system that's dysfunctional, we are - we're so apathetic that we're allowing the craziest among us to control the system.
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*Heroes are for kids - they don't have bills to pay.
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*Poverty Pimp: One who has an overwhelming need to buy a homeless man a sandwich - but feels an even greater need to bring a camera crew along to record the event.
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*Conservatism: 21st Century pretexts for 19th Century thinking.
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*Demagogue: One who's quick to give you all he's got - but all he's got is a passionate desire to manipulate you.
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*Compassionate Conservative: A Christian conservative who's morally, and fundamentally, opposed to lynching - so he'll starve you to death instead.
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*Donald Trump: Hitler in a wig.
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*Never fully trust ANY politician - after all, they've dedicated themselves to a life of crime.
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*Political Rule of Thumb: Trying to find a politician who's not self-serving is like searching for a homosexual who's not gay.
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*In order for ANY politician to get the majority of votes from people who disagree, he must lie to at least some of them - so if your favorite politician is holding office, he's a liar by definition.
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*One's intelligence rises to accommodate one's level of curiosity.
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*Ninety-nine percent of the people are petty, self-serving hedonists. I only hope the remaining one percent can save me from myself.
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*When you feel obliged to lock out differing points of view, you incarcerate yourself in a prison of ignorance.
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*Never become so enraptured by other people's thoughts that you fail to formulate your own.
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*Soaring rhetoric is only as meaningful as the backbone that sustains it.
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*We often confuse literacy with intellect. Intelligence is the capacity to assess and creatively manipulate information that the literate merely regurgitates.
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*Indulging in name-calling is a waste of both time and energy, because fools have a tendency to do all the heavy lifting for you.
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*Some of the best money I've ever spent was on the gratitude in the eyes of a homeless man.
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*Truth was the very first victim of American Exceptionalism.
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*Politicians are not our leaders; they're our employees - and we're grossly neglecting the business.
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*Friends are at their best when rewarding our failure to succeed.
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*True love is always having your lover's back, and knowing you don't have to worry about your own.
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*Some of the greatest minds I've ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores.
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*Some of the weakest minds I’ve ever known roamed the halls of academia giving the pursuit of credentials priority over the pursuit of knowledge.
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*Before you point your finger at another, you should smell it first.
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*The only difference between Arab terrorism and American terrorism is the cost and efficiency of the delivery system.
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*The great institutions of learning can only certify that one was present in an environment where knowledge was shared. But no institution can confer either intelligence, character, or common sense, nor can it certify that the knowledge shared was absorbed.
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*Man's innate thirst for knowledge will someday overwhelm his passionate lust for stupidity.
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*Show me a man who believes that Moses parted the Red Sea, and I'll show you one whose grip on reality can't be relied upon.
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*More often than not, the happiest moments in your life won't cost you a dime.
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*The only difference between you and Socrates is that you're still capable of correcting your erroneous beliefs.
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*The key to Black liberation is to practice excellence as though it's a jump shot.
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*State's Rights: We demand our constitutional right to lynch whomever we wish.
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*Libertarian: I demand my individual right to abridge the rights of whomever I please.
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*The GOP: Liberals are un-American - they're engaged in a socialist plot to protect your family.
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*Religious Bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
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*We accept the Bible as the word of God because the Bible says it is. Go figure it.
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*Question: When we're asked to "have faith," are we being asked to have faith in God, or to have faith in what man tells us about God?
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*Question: Can one believe in God, yet have no faith in man?
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*Question: If we can only be "saved" though Christ, did God condemn everyone born in non-Christian nations before birth?
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*Question: If God knows all, and he knows before Billy is born that Billy is going to Hell, can Billy do anything in life to make God wrong?
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*Every experience is a source of knowledge, so having to endure adversity makes one more, rather than less.
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*One should take great pride in being the product of adversity, because your mere survival provides you with unassailable credentials.
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*Unfortunately, man is most generously rewarded for his collusion in the conspiracy against mankind.
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*If one can’t find happiness in poverty, wealth will prove to be an ineffective mentor.
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*It is always gratifying to win a debate, but losing one is of much more value.
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*We’re Black and we’re proud - right up until we escape.
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*Question: Why is it that we allow our children to watch murder and mayhem all day long, but if a woman's breast is exposed we feel they've been irretrievably corrupted?
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*We must buy a license to marry, but we're free to hate with impunity. Go figure it.
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*I love you madly, my brother - until you succeed.
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*Black people are the product of the very same racist environment as White people. Thus, we're just as racist toward other Blacks as any Hillbilly.
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*Corporatists: It is always a delight to take so much credit for what so many others have done.
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*Always follow truth, regardless to where it leads, or whose ox it gores.
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*Older women aren't quite as frisky as young ones, but at least I have someone to talk to when I'm done.
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*The perfect woman: One who only tells me to go to Hell half the time.
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*An epiphany: The triumph of common sense over wishful thinking.
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*A personal epiphany: Never publish without running spellcheck.
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*Truth: You know you're aging when you've got the hots for the lady in the Depends commercial.
Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.