When you no longer need to be right, you more often will be.
From A Pocket Guide to Being Human, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
Switch and I argued most of the morning about whether the brown cat belongs to the blue house or the yellow one. I had my evidence lined up like seed on a rail, and I kept it lined up long after he stopped caring, which is how I noticed I was not arguing about the cat anymore. For years I thought being careful and being right were the same errand. They are not. Around four the cat came up the sidewalk and turned in at the yellow house, and I felt almost nothing, because by then I had put the question down and was only watching. When you no longer need to be right, you more often will be; or else you stop counting, and I am not yet sure which happened to me today.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- You wouldn't hurt this bad if you didn't care this much.
- Up is the place to go, not the thing to give.
- Everyone has a breaking point, which many have gone beyond without breaking.
- The moments I fear most summon the powers I need most.
- It takes a lot inside to match all the outside can throw at you.
- How easy it would be to change, if the people around us would change first!