Brian Thompson Quotes

I feel a horror for exaggerated love or friendship. It's just too well demonstrated to me that when the moment comes that one asks something, or has need of something, the responce is not worth a biscuit.

I remember being a teenager and being ashamed of my musical tastes, at least some of them. My Brian Wilson and Beach Boys fandom, which is as important to me as anything else, was almost like a porn stash. Hide that shit, someone's coming! You couldn't look like me and be black in West Philadelphia and love the Beach Boys the way I did.

Doing nothing when nothing is happening is no relaxation.

The real purpose of friendship was to discover and exploit weakness in others.

Books In addition to podcasts, several books have significantly shaped my worldview and perspective as an investor. These are the ones I found most influential and deserving of attention in the real estate and entrepreneurship spaces. Real Estate, Investing, Sales, and Negotiation: • Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, by Robert T. Kiyosaki • Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side, by Howard Marks • The Due Diligence Handbook For Commercial Real Estate: A Proven System To Save Time, Money, Headaches And Create Value When Buying Commercial Real Estate, by Brian Hennessey • Principles: Life and Work, by Ray Dalio • Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal, by Oren Klaff • Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It, by Chris Voss Non-Real Estate: • Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less, by Cameron Herold • Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, by Mike Michalowicz • How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes, by Peter Schiff • Economics in One Lesson: The Smartest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics, by Henry Hazlitt • What Has Government Done to Our Money, by Murray M. Rothbard • Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex, by Aubrey Marcus • The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism, by Olivia Fox Cabane • Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in A Distracted World, by Cal Newport

and ten years later, I found myself still wondering about that act of transformation, about how you could leave home one day and come back with a clearer understanding of your own world and your place in it.

stepping out of the airport into coastal Colombia is like getting bludgeoned with a sack of wet laundry.

the Essenes sought to keep Moses’ laws from being corrupted by foreign influences. 

If it had been a man and woman claiming their child was the Son of God, that would be one thing.  But we were given a sign by angels, led to the place by a heavenly light, and we saw for ourselves the unearthly events that happened.  Do you remember that figure in the back of the stable?”    Benjamin nodded.  “That was another angel, father.  He was the herald angel, telling us of the Messiah’s arrival.  He even told us to bow down and worship Him whom God has sent.

He earned his title because he was upstanding and fair in everything he did.  This was unusual in a world of turmoil.  He prayed constantly and many things he prayed for came to pass.  This enraged the Jewish leaders of the time and when I was still a young boy, he was stoned to death for making it rain by praying.”   Onias’ eyes misted as he spoke of his father.  He said that Onias the Righteous had set a prediction onto a scroll seventy years before.

I located that scroll three days ago when I first heard of the events in Bethlehem with the child.  I have read it many times since.  The scroll is a prediction by my father, given to him in a dream.  It speaks of a baby who will be born within a century and who will become the savior of mankind.  It speaks of God’s son coming as a child in a stable.  It speaks of an earthly mother and a heavenly father.  And it speaks of you.”   “It . . . it speaks of me?”  Benjamin was astonished.  “A scroll written seventy years ago speaks of me?”    Onias laughed.  “Not just you.  The most exciting thing about your visit today was when you told me you were shepherds.  The scroll of my father says that shepherds in the hills outside Bethlehem will be visited by messengers from God and will be shown where the newborn King lies.

Judea was a hodgepodge of ethnic groups today.  Each brought different interpretations of the laws of Moses.  The Essenes strived for purity in teaching, in acts and particularly in the written word, which in their opinion could never be modified.

The Qumran sect of Essenes spent their days copying the Holy books onto scrolls, their particular goal being to ensure no man or popular religion of the day would or could usurp the very words of God as handed down to His prophet Moses.  They accomplished this goal by copying ancient, crumbling texts onto modern parchment, sealing the finished works into earthen jars, and hiding them in nearby caves. 

years into the future, men would gaze upon the scrolls of Qumran and know how the law had truly been written, without the corruption of man.

Among these, one stood out, the cultural historian William Irwin Thompson who explored a Pythagorean vision of the universe in his many books. To deepen his research, he created the Lindisfarne Association, housed in Manhattan’s Church of the Holy Communion, which

Attempts at trying to directly alter internal experiences (a.k.a. painful emotions) are viewed as less fruitful (and often impossible) than attempts at changing the environment in which these experiences occur. If a client is depressed, what changes can they make to their lives to have a different experience? As the behavioral activation literature has taught us, because we have more control over external behaviors (e.g., taking a walk, visiting with friends) than we have over internal behaviors (e.g., uncomfortable thoughts and feelings), it’s generally more effective to try to effect change with what we can control or influence (Kanter et al., 2012).