[kstenerud]

It's unfortunate that he spoke in terms of absolutes with this quote.

Yes, there are a number of problems that can be solved by sitting quietly, but there are many more problems that cannot.

- A fire

- An angry girlfriend

- Racism

- A border dispute

- Monopolies

- Corruption

- War

[pjc50]

This is such an Internet response. Perhaps a bigger problem than not being able to sit alone is not being able to cope with a single sentence that doesn't cover every contingency in the universe.

[Ekaros]

Of the list isn't all but first one caused by inability to sit quietly in a room?

And even for fires good amount of fires is caused by that...

[kstenerud]

No. And that's the entire problem. People use this quote as some kind of truism, and since you couldn't ever get all people to sit alone quietly in a room, it also cannot be disproven (much like my anti-meteor stone that I carry with me).

It then gets dressed up as some kind of mystical wisdom when it was never intended to be that big. It's become an easy way to believe oneself wise without having to actually think.