Money and hate: two quotations that come very close to home

Two quotations that made a big impression on me when I first came across them many years ago suddenly surfaced in my mind recently. After realising how very applicable they are to many people and their lives, I decided to feature them in a short article.

A very unfair aspect of life
I once read something that resonated very strongly. I can't remember where I read it or what the exact wording was, but it was something like this:

“Not having money is much worse than having money is good.”

I agree with this proposition, and I think that it can be applied to many things other than money. It seems obvious to me that while being in possession of certain things might not bring us any particular benefit, we would definitely be much worse off without them. In other words, the disadvantages that come from not having something may greatly exceed the advantages of having it.

Some things are conspicuous mainly by their absence.

Someone who leaves school with little or nothing in the way of marketable qualifications or skills may be in big trouble, whereas someone who has achieved a string of good exam results and mastered some basic abilities may find that these attainments are no big deal. The first person may be way behind the majority, but the second one will not be ahead of the crowd. 

Someone who hates their job so much that they go down to minus 100 on the happiness scale is unlikely to reach plus 100 if they get work that they really enjoy: they will be lucky if they get to plus 10! 

The above two examples come from personal experience.

Upton Sinclair's wise words about checking the evidence

Some of the American author Upton Sinclair's wise words that resonate strongly with me have been quoted in previous articles, including, for example, one about the difficulty of getting through to people and another that contains his description of what it feels like to be used and thrown aside. 

I intended to search for more article-inspiring material from Upton SInclair at the time, but other topics intervened. I recently decided to take a further look, and I found another good quote to highlight:

"It is foolish to be convinced without evidence, but it is equally foolish to refuse to be convinced by real evidence." 

This speaks for itself. It may state the obvious, but it is very true. 

Where the proposition that unseen forces are at work in some people's lives is concerned for example, I have seen many examples of both automatic, immediate, mindless, enthusiastic acceptance of the idea and automatic, immediate, mindless, contemptuous denial and dismissal of even the possibility. 

Both types of reaction are indeed foolish; I think of these positions as two sides of the same bad coin.

It is good practice to neither believe nor disbelieve, but entertain possibilities. It is best to consider the evidence or lack of it and look at the cases for and against before making any decisions and commitments.