Ask Lemmy

When my dad was teaching me how to ride a bike, I kept falling.

He noticed that I was paying so much attention to the road that I couldn't focus on riding the bike.

Finally he picked me up, looked me dead in the eyes and said, "You rule the road. Don't let the road rule you".

Somehow that phrase immediately gave me the ability to ride a bicycle.

I have shared it with other people learning to ride a bicycle after they have fallen down at least once.

It freaking works.

There's this quote early in Good Omens: “It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

It's an awkward one these days, but it sounds Pratchett-esque enough to salvage.

Experience is a lantern lightning only it's carrier

Two quotes/ statements from a book named “The Midnight Library” ;

• “If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it. And don't give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Most gossip is envy in disguise”.

• “Never underestimate the big importance of small things”.

You won't know if you don't ask.

People fear rejection or embarrassment for asking other people questions but once you realize that it's the most efficient way to navigate life it really helps. Saves you time and energy. Often saves you emotional energy as well in the long run.

If you like someone just ask them.

If you want to know where someone got something or learned a skill just ask them.

Curiosity is important and I feel so many people are so socially anxious that they will just try and Google and Google as opposed to entering into a simple verbal exchange with a stranger or something.

What is better: to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?

"If it weren't for my horse, I would've never spent that year in college."

I don't know what it means, but it has changed my life.

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.

"The thing about happiness is that you only know you had it when it's gone. I mean, you may think to yourself that you're happy. But you don't really believe it. You focus on the petty bullshit, or the next job, or whatever. It's only looking back by comparison with what comes after that you really understand, that's what happiness felt like."

-Conrad Kellogg. Fallout 4.

From "The Good Place": If soulmates do exist, they're not found. They're made.

I believe Seth MacFarlane said something similar in "The Orville".

A great reminder from two great shows.

Almost every horrific thing that humans engage in stems from fear.