Zero Sum Game Quotes

“This kind of action is a prevalent error among oppressed peoples. It is based upon the false notion that there is only a limited and particular amount of freedom that must be divided up between us, with the largest and juiciest pieces of liberty going as spoils to the victor or the stronger. So instead of joining together to fight for more, we quarrel between ourselves for a larger slice of the one pie. Black women fight between ourselves over men, instead of pursuing and using who we are and our strengths for lasting change; Black women and men fight between ourselves over who has more of a right to freedom, instead of seeing each other's struggles as part of our own and vital to our common goals; Black and white women fight between ourselves over who is the more oppressed, instead of seeing those areas in which our causes are the same. (Of course, this last separation is worsened by the intransigent racism that white women too often fail to, or cannot, address in themselves.)”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“The actual rewards that come from arguing with other people have nothing to do with winning and losing. A good argument helps us refine our own ideas and discover where our reasoning is the weakest. Other people's opposition can help us turn our own half-formed ideas into clear assertions backed by solid reasoning. And setting our ideas and opinions against someone else's helps us know each other better, which makes us better friends. We get these benefits from arguments when we collaborate with a partner. We do not get them when we try to destroy an enemy. That is how non-zero-sum games work.”
― Michael Austin, We Must Not Be Enemies: Restoring America's Civic Tradition

“In intimacy, we are clasped into one another, and the invisible bonds are liberating shackles. this clasping is imperious: it demands exclusivity. to share is to betray. But we want to love and touch not only one single person. What to do? control the various intimacies? Strict bookkeeping of subjects, words, gestures? Mutual knowledge and secrets? It would be a silent trickling poison.”
― Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon

“Waaant equity," hisses the alien intruder.

"You can't be Pamela Macx," says Pierre, his back to the wall, keeping the sword point before the lobster-woman-thing. "She's in a nunnery in Armenia or something. You pulled that out of Glashwiecz's memories - he worked for her, didn't he?"

Claws go snicker-snack before his face. "Investment partnership!" screeches the harridan. "Seat on the board! Eat brains for breakfast!" It lurches sideways, trying to get past his guard.”
― Charles Stross, Accelerando

“Life numbed, unceasing, interminable, from zero begins to zero it ends.”
― Xiaobo Liu, June Fourth Elegies

“How do you decide which man deserves punishment and which does not? How can you judge for certain, this heart is rotted and this one good? What if you make a mistake?”
[...] “Let us consider,” I said, “a boatload of sailors. Among them, some are undoubtedly worse than others. Some exult in rape and piracy, but others are newly come to it and scarcely have their beards. Some would never imagine robbery, except that their families are starving. Some feel shame after, some do it only because their captain commands it, and because they have the crowd of other men there, to hide among.”
“And so,” he said, “which do you change, and which do you let go?”
“I change them all,” I said. “They have come to my house. Why should I care what is in their hearts?”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“In the U.S. election of 1860, the New York Herald's owner James Gordon Bennett Sr. warned the white workers of New York, "... if Lincoln is elected, you will have to compete with the labor of four million emancipated negroes.”
― Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

“For almost a minute the two of us were locked in a battle of wills that had no possible winner, only a different order of losing.”
― Mira Grant, Parasite

“For a certain kind of temperament, defeat is never defeat by reality, but always defeat by other people, often acting together as members of a class, tribe, conspiracy or clan.”
― Roger Scruton, How to be a Conservative

“Structurally, democracies succeed when there is a strong middle class, the police and the military are separate and under civilian control, due process is perceived as a 'fairness' test that applies across groups, government has to respect some kind of 'private' space into which it will not intrude UNLESS the public good is at stake, and people get mad if political figures - whether their own chosen representatives or THOSE people's representatives - appear to be untruthful or unfair. If people decide to see things as a zero-sum game - the more THEY succeed, the more WE lose, and we should rage about any call made against US, and cheer any call made against THEM - then democracy loses.”
― Patricia Roberts-Miller, Demagoguery and Democracy

“Who would want to work with someone who characterizes the world as some zero sum, chronically unfair game, with injustice at every turn? How can this mindset possibly serve you, your friends, your family, or your colleagues? Is it good for your financial, professional, or mental health? Is it something to teach children? Do you want your neighbors, the world even, to engage in this manner every time something doesn’t turn out their way?”
― Evan Thomsen, Don’t Chase The Dream Job, Build It: The unconventional guide to inventing your career and getting any job you want

“Life's a lot like poker. You bet on some hands, you fold some. You win some hands, you lose some. But unlike poker, life is not a zero sum game. There's enough chips in the pot for everyone.”
― Sanhita Baruah