fear is the mind-killer

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Frank Herbert

Dune (science fiction novel) published August 1, 1965

strength

O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous

To use it like a giant.

Isabella to Angelo in Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare. Act 2, Sc. 2

faith in the future

For every worry under the sun,

There is a remedy, or there is none;

If there be one, hurry and find it,

If there be none, never mind it.

–LeGrand Richards, CN 31 March 1979,4

We must have faith in the future regardless of the ultimate eventualities. There could be no greater calamity in this world than the calamity of sitting down and waiting for calamity. We must not let the things which we can’t do keep us from doing the things we can do…. The future will always be better for those who are best prepared.


Richard L. Evans, Church News, June 25, 1988, p.2 as found in Prophetic Statements on Food Storage for Latter-day Saints by Neil H. Leash. Cedar Fort. 1999. p.184

a why to live for

"Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie?" or "If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche “Götzen-Dämmerung; oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophirt” 1889 

As found in Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. "There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” I can see in these words a motto which holds true for any psychotherapy."

sticking to a 'core competency'

In Kyoto, the video game company Nintendo is known across the globe for the way it revolutionised at-home entertainment with its electronic gaming system back in 1985.

But most people don’t know that the company predates its massive global commercial success. Despite being thought of as a tech company, Nintendo was founded back in 1889, as a maker of playing cards for the Japanese game hanafuda. First imported by the Portuguese in the 16th Century, the game involves collecting cards with various flowers printed on them, each worth different points.

Kyoto University’s [Yoshinori] Hara says Nintendo is a great example of a company sticking to what he calls a “core competency”. That’s the basic concept behind what a company makes or does, which helps the company survive – even as the technology or world around it changes. In Nintendo’s case, it’s “how to create fun”, Hara says.

Bryan Lufkin
"Why so many of the world’s oldest companies are in Japan" BBC.com Feb. 12, 2020