Quote Generator

Explore

All Quotes
All Quotes

All Quotes

All Quotes

Quote Text

Name

Tag(s)

Notes

If you pick someone, you're really safe. If they pick you, you have to be careful. - Pen Jillette

Man, whose teacher is nature, should not be a piece of wax on which an elevated image of some professor is to be carved.

GEORGE LICHTENBERG

Self 1.0 vs 2.0

Don’t be the person who says yes with their mouth but no with their actions. - Ryan Holiday

Don't slay dragons that aren't in your way. - Jordan Peterson

Every prophet has to come from civilization, but every prophet has to go into the wilderness. He must have a strong impression of a complex society and all that it has to give, and then he must serve periods of isolation and meditation. This is the process by which psychic dynamite is made. - Winston Churchill

A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. - Herbert Simon

The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. - George Bernard Shaw

Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating; your mind will start ticking—and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. It’s the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth—and one of the best. - Dale Carnegie

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. - John Maxwell

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. - Anne Lamott

Select your purpose … selfless, without any thought of personal pleasure or personal profit, and then use selfless means to attain your goal. - Gandhi

If you are to have a great kingdom,” he said, “rule over yourself! - Publius Syrus

The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks. - Christopher Hitchens

You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end. - Shane Parrish, Farnham Street

To get what you want, deserve what you want. Trust, success, and admiration are earned. - Charlie Munger

The biggest problem we run into is going, ‘This is who I am, this is what I’m like, this is how I function’ while failing to notice that you don’t do that anymore. - Neil Gaiman

We already know what we need to do. - United States Navy Seal and Rhodes Scholar Eric Greitens

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only few find it. - Matthew 7:13-14

Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman. - Coco Chanel

You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything. - John Maxwell

Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. - Maya Angelou

There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't even started wondering about yet. - Roald Dahl

The illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. - Alvin Toffler

A man is about as big as the things that make him angry. - Winston Churchill

Between two evils, I generally like to pick the one I never tried before. - Mae West

It is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking, than it is to think yourself into a new way of acting. - Millard Fuller

The best things in life are free. The second best things are very, very expensive. - Coco Chanel

All cruelty springs from weakness. - Seneca

The truth knocks on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I'm looking for the truth,’ and so it goes away. Puzzling. - Robert M. Pirsig

The busy man is least busy with living. - Seneca

The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. - David Foster Wallace

Tell me what you need and I'll tell you how to live without it. - Altai mountain local skier from Warren Miller movie

The wound is the place where light enters you. - Rumi

For the mediocre there is no hope. Mediocrity is a sin.” –“The Tramp,” War of the Classes - Jack London

No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire. - Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Life is not even close to being as logically consistent as our worries; it has many more unexpected ideas and many more facts than we do. - Rilke

It’s unfortunate that this happened. No. It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed. - Marcus Aurelius

Reminds me of "Thank you" and Jocko's, "Good."

The only aspect of your life that fortune does not have control over is your behavior. - Nassim Taleb

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. - Henry David Thoreau

Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it. - Ray Bradbury

Good journey, not goodbye. - (Don't know where this came from, saw it on a headstone in a movie years ago and always stuck with me).

We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one. - Confucius

As long as you live, keep learning how to live. - Seneca

Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens. - C.G. Jung

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. - Scott Adams

Be who you needed when you were younger. - T.S. Elliot

Astrophysicist Janna Levin’s magnificent Moth story about the Möbius life-paths that lead us back to ourselves, Shapiro adds: There is no other life than this. You would not have stumbled into the vastly imperfect, beautiful, impossible present.

"philosopher Amelie Rorty concluded in her taxonomy of the seven layers of identity in literature and life. “Time is the substance I am made of,” wrote Borges decades earlier in refuting the most perplexing dimension of existence. “Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”"

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. - Louis L’Amour

We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are. - Anais Nin

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast. - John Gunther

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. - Henry David Thoreau

Success generally comes after you start. If you think success comes before you start, the world probably looks confusing to you. - Scott Adams

The pattern I observe that says complexity always hides the future, as opposed to predicting it. - Scott Adams

Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life. – Jerzy Gregorek

Well done is better than well said. - Benjamin Franklin

The source of wisdom is whatever is going to happen to us today. - Pema Chödrön

No-one knows what your life or life itself should be because it is in the process of being created. Life moves according to a growing consciousness of life and is completely unpredictable. - Agnes Martin

To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated. - James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

Sometimes it is not enough to do our best; we must do what is required. - Winston Churchill

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. - Leonardo da Vinci

So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. - George Mallory

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously. -Peter Ustinov

The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret. - Nido Qubein

A tunnel is a cave with a light at the end. Just because it's dark it doesn't mean were underground. It often means that no one has bothered to turn on the lights. - Seth Godin, 9/10/16 blog post

Some feel we have no control over what happens to us. If this is your belief, then it’s probably real for you. - Leo Babauta

Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world. - George Bernard Shaw

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. – George Bernard Shaw

There is no way to happiness -- happiness is the way. - Thich Nhat Hanh.

Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows. - Epictetus

We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training. - Archilochus

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. - John Muir

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. - John Muir

Over-sentimentality, over-softness, in fact washiness and mushiness are the great dangers of this age and of this people. Unless we keep the barbarian virtues, gaining the civilized ones will be of little avail. - Theodore Roosevelt

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. - Lewis B. Smedes

As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time has no practical value without attention. - Tim Ferriss

How much time are you spending deciding what to spend time on? - Seth Godin

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. - Henry David Thoreau

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike. - Oscar Wilde

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. - Bruce Lee

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own - Bruce Lee

To me, ‘busy’ implies that the person is out of control of their life. - Derek Sivers

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. - Mark Twain

Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. - Mark Twain

The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself. - Mark Twain

The preparation for the ritual is the ritual. - Kate Green

The measure of success is not how much time you spend doing what you love, it's how little time you spend doing what you hate. - Casey Neistat

Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood. - Leonardo DaVinci

Wealth is liberty - liberty to seek recreation, liberty to enjoy life, liberty to improve the mind: it is disposable time and nothing more. - Karl Marx

Train your expectation to appreciation. - Tony Robbins

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle

Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The greatest dignity to be found in death is the dignity of the life that preceded it. - Sherwin B. Nuland

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. - Adam Smith

Be clear about your intentions, thoughtful in your choices, simple in your desires and content in your days... Life will present us with enough challenges. We don’t need to set ourselves up for more by fueling expectations or living rigidly. - Mark Sisson on Stoic philosophy

If you find yourself criticizing other people, you’re probably doing it out of resistance. When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own. – The Art of War

100

It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent. - Charlie Munger, vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

101

That’s the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you. - Henry Rollins

102

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. - Winston Churchill

103

Normality is a paved road: it's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it. - Vincent Van Gogh.

104

Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.' - Lao Tzu

105

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. - Winston Churchill

106

Make the man who does wrong aware that the decent man is not only his superior in decency, but his superior in strength. - Teddy Rosevelt

107

Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now! - Viktor Frankl

108

People forget the brain lives inside the body. If the body's unhealthy, the brain's unhealthy. - Joe De Sena

109

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition. -Samuel Johnson

110

Do fewer things. Do them better. Know why you're doing them. - Call Newport

111

Either you run the day or the the day runs you. - Jim Rohn

112

Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development. - Jim Rohn

113

If you don't have a plan to interrupt your interruptions your plans will always be interrupted. Period. - Peter Voogd.

114

Behind every feeling is nothing, but behind every principle and value is a promise. - Eric Thomas

115

Where you are is a result of who you were, but where you go depends entirely on who you choose to be. - Hal Elrod (check source)

116

When I double my rate of failure I double my rate of success. - James Swanwick, former ESPN anchor

117

If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. -Naval Admiral William H. McRaven. McRaven is the commander of U.S. Special Operations, navy SEAL

118

If you want to accomplish uncommon things, you need to live everyday of your life uncommonly. If you spend your day like everyone else, you will end up like everyone else. -Unknown

119

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. - Gloria Steiner

120

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. - Karl Marx

121

Ability is what you are capable of, motivation determines what you do, but attitude determines how well you do it. - Lou Holtz

122

The truth is revealed by removing things which stand in its light, an art, not unlike sculpture, in which the artist creates, not by building, but by hacking away. - Alan Watts

123

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. - Bruce Lee

124

Failure does not deserve to be addressed with recrimination or pity. Rather, failure must be honored for the insight it provides. Failure is the grist for learning; it is our teacher. Without taking risk, we can’t fail, and so we don’t learn or grow toward elite performance and top-shelf solutions. Navigate. – Mark Divine

125

For every inside there is an outside, and for every outside there is an inside; though they are different, they go together. - Alan Watts

126

More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them. - Harold J. Smith

127

What a man hasn't been reasoned into believing, he cannot be reasoned out of believing.

128

Success hinges less on getting everything right than on how you handle getting things wrong. - Michelle Russel

129

People think of education as something they can finish. - Isaac Asimov

130

Much of education is oriented toward making a living rather than making a LIFE. - Dr. Walsh

131

Don’t ever solve the same the same problem three times in a row. If you have the same question or problem three times in a row, systematize it. - Joel Runyun

132

You can only lose what you cling to. -Buddha

133

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. - Maya Angelou

134

Never have your wallet with you onstage. It's bad luck. You shouldn't play the piano with money in your pocket. Play like you need the money. - Tom Waits

135

Wherever a process of life communicates an eagerness to him who lives it, there the life becomes genuinely significant. Sometimes the eagerness is more knit up with the motor activities, sometimes with the perceptions, sometimes with the imagination, sometimes with reflective thought. But, wherever it is found, there is the zest, the tingle, the excitement of reality; and there is ‘importance’ in the only real and positive sense in which importance ever anywhere can be. -William James

136

Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it. —Steve Prefontaine

137

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. - Thomas Jefferson

138

A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you’re looking down, you can’t see the things above you. – C.S. Lewis

139

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas. - Carl Sagan

140

The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life. - Euripides

141

Humans are powerful and beautiful...but they have to see it first, and see the power and beauty both within themselves and outside. Eyesight and vision are not the same. Eyesight perceives the surface of what is. Vision perceives what's beneath and above, and merges with your own creativity to produce your own perception, your own reality, your own world. - Erwan Le Corre

142

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.—Friedrich Nietzsche

143

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in. ― Leonardo da Vinci

144

Wisdom, when spoken aloud, always sounds a little foolish. Perhaps that's because when we hear something that makes sense to us, we think we already know it. But often we don't. - Herman Hesse (this has been paraphrased by another author).

145

America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies. - James Fenimore Cooper

146

We are here and it is now: further than that all human knowledge is moonshine. - H. L. Mencken, 1880 - 1956

147

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds.

148

Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty. - John D. Rockafeller

149

Save when you can and not when you have to.

150

Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed. - John D. Rockafeller

151

It was my pride that I was taken in as an equal, in spirit as well as in fact. - Jack London

152

If I see a man with a good brain who simply won't get down and dig, who won't master fundamentals, I cannot help but pity him. So it is with your life's work; say that such is not your temperament, etc.; and in short are cowardly. - Jack London

153

so be it. The end is not yet. If I die I shall die hard, fighting to the last, and hell shall receive no fitter inmate than myself. - Jack London

154

And when we sincerely choose happiness as a governing principle of our lives, we quickly learn that circumstance has no inherent power. Any power that our life circumstance holds, is power that we give it. To borrow a line from one of my personal heroes, Viktor Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning), “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” - Richie Norton

155

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. - William Morris

156

Live as long as you may, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life. They appear so while they are passing; they seem to have been so when we look back on them; and they take up more room in our memory than all the years that succeed them. -Robert Southey

157

I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible; to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance, to live so that which came to me as seed goes to the next as blossom, and that which came to me as blossom, goes on as fruit. - Dawna Markova

158

Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. - Chuck Close

159

The truth is that the dreams that you have are very different from the actions that will get you there. - James Clear

160

It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. - William Faulkner likening gratitude to electricity

161

History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. Please write that down. - Kurt Vonnegut's main character in Slapstick

162

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. - Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1777 - 1855

163

Mission Statement: A long awkward sentence that demonstrates management's inability to think clearly. - Scott Adams

164

The Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage - Management. - Scott Adams

165

We're a planet of nearly six billion ninnies living in a civilization that was designed by a few thousand amazingly smart deviants. - Scott Adams

166

Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle behind lotteries, dating, and religion. - Scott Adams

167

I have two doctors, my left leg and my right. When my body and mind are out of gear (and this twin parts of me live at such close quarters that one always catches meloncholy from the other) I know that I have only to call my doctors and I shall be well again. - George Macaulay Trevelyan, "Walking," 1913

168

Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced. - Søren Kierkegaard, 1813 - 1855

169

People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones. - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958

170

The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution. - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958

171

If you want to kill any idea in the world today, get a committee working on it. - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958

172

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong. - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958

173

The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time. - Dante Alighieri, 1265 - 1312

174

He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward. - Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1878 - 1969

175

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it. - Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1878 - 1969

176

Barbarism is needed every four or five hundred years to bring the world back to life. Otherwise it would die of civilization. - Edmond de Goncourt, 1822 - 1896

177

Never speak of yourself to others; make them talk about themselves instead; therein lies the whole art of pleasing. Everybody knows it, and everyone forgets it. - Edmond de Goncourt, 1822 - 1896

178

People don't like the true and simple; they like fairy tales and humbug. - Edmond de Goncourt, 1822 - 1896

179

Be mindful of your actions. Express your fully engaged attentiveness like a cat when it stalks a mouse. The cat crouches with the spirit of its whole being focused on the task at hand. Mental involvement in the actions being performed engages the whole being in the exercise, producing far greater results than merely performing them through repetition. - Dave Richardson, MovNat Alumnus

180

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. -Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar, Mark Twain

181

If you want to know your past look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future look into your present actions. - Chinese proverb

182

Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it. - Professor Dumbledore

183

Don’t look at the wall. Your car goes where your eyes go. - Mario Andretti

184

Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice. - Bob Goff

185

The people who stick with their goals don’t let their emotions determine their actions. Top performers still find a way to show up, to work through the boredom, and to embrace the daily practice that is required to achieve their goals. - James Clear

186

Einstein stated: "Theories should be as simple as possible, but no simpler." So we will say "Training should be as simple as possible, but no simpler."

187

If I find a cow turd on my front steps, I'm not satisfied knowing that I'll be mentally prepared to find some future cow turd. I want to shovel that turd onto my garden and hope the cow returns every week so I never have to buy fertilizer again. Failure is a resource that can be managed. - Scott Adams

188

With an obedient and disciplined brain a man live always right up to the standard of his best moments. - Arnold Bennett, The Human Machine

189

As Milton wrote inParadise Lost, “[The mind] can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.”

190

A practice (as a noun) can be anything you practice on a regular basis as an integral part of your life—not in order to gain something else, but for its own sake… For a master, the rewards gained along the way are fine, but they are not the main reason for the journey. Ultimately, the master and the master’s path are one. And if the traveler is fortunate—that is, if the path is complex and profound enough—the destination is two miles farther away for every mile he or she travels. – George Leonard

191

I don't know what I want. Nobody knows — or if they do, they don't know for long. I mean, you don't want the same thing long enough for it to be What You Want From Life in capital letters. - Tallulah Bankhead, 1902 - 1968

192

Here's a rule I recommend. Never practice two vices at once. - Tallulah Bankhead, 1902 - 1968

193

Don’t be the person who says yes with their mouth but no with their actions.” - Ryan Holiday

194

In the information game, the race doesn’t go to the swift, it goes to the selective. - Tim Ferriss

195

The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning. - James Clear

196

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours. - Richard Bach

197

My schedule is far less about what I want to get done and far more about who I want to become. - Bill Hybel

198

The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept. - Thucydides

199

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals. - Brian Tracy

200

The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he becomes. - Soren Kierkegaard

201

If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's. - Joseph Campbell

202

Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not. - Epicurus

203

If a man has reported to you, that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make any defense to what has been told you: but reply, The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have mentioned these only. - Epictetus

204

The most courageous decision that you can make each day is to be in a good mood. - Voltaire

205

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. - Rainer Maria Rilke

206

A good marriage is one in which each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal, and this is true also of our friendships. - Anne Lamott

207

Things usually happen around us, not to us. - Unknown, found on Reddit

208

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

209

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction. - John F. Kennedy

210

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. - Abraham Lincoln

211

There is no past and no future; no one has ever entered those two imaginary kingdoms. There is only the present. - Leo Tolstoy

212

In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present- I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world? - Marcus Aurelius

213

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. - Carl Sagan

214

It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less. - Nathan W. Morris

215

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

216

We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is. - Arnold Bennett

217

You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. - Arnold Bennett

218

Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense. - Marcus Aurelius

219

As kids, we move a lot without thinking, but as grown-ups we think too much without moving. - Erwan Le Corre

220

I change my mind when the facts change. What do you do? - John Maynard Keynes

221

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. - Socrates

222

The condition and characteristic of an uninstructed person is this: he never expects from himself profit (advantage) nor harm, but from externals. The condition and characteristic of a philosopher is this: he expects all advantage and all harm from himself. - Epictetus

223

Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions-not outside. - Marcus Aurelius

224

It is time you understand that true spirituality means that you yourself become the living expression of the divine teaching you follow. - Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

225

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. - Heraclitus

226

Shedding one’s skin. The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. So do the spirits who are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be spirit. - Nietzsche

227

I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had. - Margaret Mead

228

Time is the king of all men, he is their parent and their grave, and gives them what he will and not what they crave. - Pericles

229

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. - Heraclitus

230

Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

231

Keeping one’s distance from an ignorant person is equivalent to keeping company with a wise man. - Ali Bin Abi-Taleb

232

I’ve never been interested in pursuing a normal life. There are enough people doing that. More growth and discovery seems to happen when I’m uncomfortable. - Derek Sivers

233

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. - Wayne Dyer

234

You might feel dumb asking questions, but you look dumber when you don't get it because you failed to ask.

235

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving. - Benjamin Franklin

236

Accept—then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life. - Eckart Tolle

237

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder. - Henry David Thoreau

238

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see. - Arthur Schopenhauer

239

Anger has a honey tip, but a poison source. - Buddha

240

Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them. - Marcus Aurelius

241

Here is my secret. It is very simple: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye. - Antoine de Saint Exupéry

242

To a disciple who was forever complaining about others, the Master said, ‘If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth.’ - Anthony de Mello

243

For a master, the rewards gained along the way are fine, but they are not the main reason for the journey. Ultimately, the master and the master’s path are one. And if the traveler is fortunate—that is, if the path is complex and profound enough—the destination is two miles farther away for every mile he or she travels. - George Leonard

244

The purpose of life, as far as I can tell, is to find a mode of being that’s so meaningful that the fact that life is suffering is no longer relevant. - Jordan Peterson

245

There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do anything worth doing. - Goethe

246

It is not enough to know, we must also apply; it is not enough to will, we must also do. - Goethe

247

Were you to live three thousand years, or even thirty thousand, remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment; and furthermore, that he can have no other life except the one he loses… This means that the longest life and the shortest amount to the same thing. For the passing minute is every man’s equal possession, but what has once gone by is not ours. - Marcus Aurelius

248

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.—’Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’—Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.” - find source on optimize

249

Men seek for seclusion in the wilderness, by the seashore, or in the mountains - a dream you have cherished only too fondly yourself. But such fancies are wholly unworthy of a philosopher, since at any moment you choose you can retire within yourself. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul; above all, he who possesses resources in himself, which he need only contemplate to secure immediate ease of mind - the ease that is but another word for a well-ordered spirit. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself. - Marcus Aurelius

250

When he was asked in an interview who didn’t make it out of the Hanoi Hilton, [James] Stockdale replied: Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. . . . This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

251

Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore. - Albert Einstein

252

B.H. Liddell Hart’s old line that sometimes the longest way around is the shortest way home. - B.H. Liddell (same meaning as Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast)

253

Ignorance more often begets confidence than knowledge. - Charles Darwin

254

He who least needs tomorrow, will most gladly greet tomorrow. - Epicurus

255

Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all. - Pericles

256

If all you did was just looked for things to appreciate, you would live a joyously spectacular life. - Esther Abraham Hicks

257

Let go or be dragged. - Zen Proverb

258

When we have alternatives, we compromise instead of commit. - Seth Godin

259

Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyways. - Glennon Doyle Melton

260

Beware the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world. - Ben Okri

261

The gulf between competence and incompetence amplifies the more competence is needed. - Shane Parrish, Farnham Street

262

Anticipate, but don’t expect. Anticipation: You’re excited for what the future holds, but you don’t try to control it. Expectation: You try to predict the future and restrict your happiness to one outcome. - James Clear

263

Concentration produces wealth. Diversification protects wealth. - James Clear

264

Always be excited about the possibilities. Never be entitled to them."

265

Because that’s all there is. The response. This is not to dismiss the immense difficulty of any of these ordeals. It is rather, to first, be prepared for them — humble and aware that they can happen. Next, it is the question: Will we resist breaking? Or will we accept the will of the universe and seek instead to become stronger where we were broken? Death or Kintsugi? Fragile or, to use that wonderful phrase from Nassim Taleb, Antifragile? Not unbreakable. Not resistant. Because those that cannot break, cannot learn, and cannot be made stronger for what happened. - Ryan Holiday

266

In a world where information is abundant and easy to access, the real advantage is knowing where to focus. - James Clear

267

The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. - Ernest Hemingway

268

Every day of our lives, we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference. - Mignon McLaughlin

269

Praise invariably implies a reference to a higher standard. - Aristotle

270

Life is not only a pleasure but a kind of eccentric privilege. - G.K. Chesterton (it’s been granted to us)

271

The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have. - Epictetus

272

If you can't do it with feeling - don't. - Patsy Cline

273

You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go. - Jeannette Rankin

274

The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. - E.O. Wilson

275

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons. - Aristotle

276

If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change. For I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance. - Marcus Aurelius

277

A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home. - Rumi

278

If one notices how some individuals know how to treat their experiences (their insignificant everyday experiences) so that these become a plot of ground that bears fruit three times a year; while others (and how many of them!) are driven through the waves of the most exciting turns of fate, of the most varied currents of their time or nation, and yet always stay lightly on the surface, like cork: then one is finally tempted to divide mankind into a minority (minimality) of those people who know how to make much out of little and a majority of those who know how to make a little out of much; indeed, one meets those perverse wizards who, instead of creating the world out of nothing, create nothing out of the world. - Friedrich Nietzsche

279

Envy of other people shows how they are unhappy. Their continual attention to others behavior shows how they are boring. - Seneca

280

Society tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all. - Nietzsche

281

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in. - Bishop Desmond Tutu

282

Don’t postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson. - Alan Cohen

283

Imagine how you want to feel at the end of the day. Start working towards that now. - Lin-Manuel Miranda

284

I’m not in the White House. Tried for that job. I didn’t get it. So all I can do from where I am is to say, ‘All right, how do we get things done from here?’ - Mitt Romney

285

Don't count the days. Make the days count. - Muhammad Ali

286

Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor with you playing the part of the suffering hero. - David D. Burns

287

The grass is always greener because it’s been fertilised with bullshit. Enjoy what you have. - @pTah_XV (twitter user)

288

Get up! Do not lie there ‘thinking.’ Nothing good every came from that. Get up! Begin your day! - Paramahansa Yogananda

289

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now! - Goethe

290

Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground. - Marcus Aurelius

291

If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading. - Lao Tzu

292

If someone could only see my actions and not hear my words, what would they say are my priorities? - James Clear

293

If you have good habits, time becomes your ally. All you need is patience. - James Clear

294

A good listener is one who helps us overhear ourselves. - Yahia Lababidi

295

Your life is designed to get the results you are getting right now. Whether you realize it or not, you are the architect. - Shane Parrish

296

Asking myself "is this helping me get what I want" is becoming one of my favorite questions. - Shane Parrish

297

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. - Eden Phillpotts

298

The way of fortune is like the milky way in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate. - Francis Bacon

299

The more control you have over your attention, the more control you have over your future. - James Clear

300

Anything that's human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. - Fred Rogers

301

Without noticing we’re doing it, we treat the future as intrinsically more valuable than the present. And yet the future never seems to arrive. - Oliver Burkeman

302

What you are aware of you are in control of. What you are not aware of is in control of you. - Anthony De Mello

303

Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. People form habits and habits form futures. If you do not deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the kind of person you are because you have formed the habit of being that kind of person, and the only way you can change is through habit. - Albert Gray

304

Give equal space to the thought, "What if it all works out?" - Colleen Jornlin (Twitter @gggingersnappp)

305

There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. - Vladimir Lenin

306

Don’t look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity. - Paul Arden

307

Nothing is more pathetic than people who run around in circles, ‘delving into the things that lie beneath,’ and conducting investigations into the souls of the people around them. - [[Marcus Aurelius]]

308

Wealth is the power to choose. Financial wealth is the power to choose how to spend money. Social wealth is the power to choose who to hang out with. Time wealth is the power to choose how to spend your day. Mental wealth is the power to choose how to spend your attention. - James Clear

309

Taking ownership of your time means I only have this much time to live, I’d better make the most of it, I’d better make it alive time, I’d better be urgent, have a bit of an edge, be aware of each moment as it’s passing and not in a fog. - [[Robert Greene]] from [Alive Time vs. Dead Time](https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/robert-greene/)

310

Nothing is more pathetic than people who run around in circles, 'delving into the things that lie beneath,' and conducting investigations into the souls of the people around them. - [[Marcus Aurelius]]

311

Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and look at the stars. This practice should answer the question. - [[Lao Tzu]]

312

Once a man worries, he clings to anything out of desperation; and once he clings he is bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whomever or whatever he is clinging to. A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn’t worry. - Carlos Castaneda wisdom from The Wheel of Time

313

You have comfort. You don’t have luxury. And don’t tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have no fear of discomfort. - Jean Cocteau

314

Despite your best efforts, not everyone wants to be helped. Make a difference where you can and be at peace with the rest.

Gary Hopkins

Coaching, Help

315

Life is like a trumpet. If you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out.

W.C. Handy

Hard work, Try Harder, Work

316

You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation.

Bette Davis

Expectations

Happiness

317

The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

Muhammad Ali

Growth

Maturity Transformation View

318

Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others than being ill at ease with yourself.

Honoré de Balzac

Self-help, Self-improvement

319

I was nervous, but my mind didn’t allow me to think about failure. I was coming to America to compete in the Mr. Universe, and then my goal was to never leave. I didn’t have a Plan B. Plan B was to try harder at Plan A.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Action, Plan A, Try Harder

320

You can tell you have created God in your own image when he hates all the same people you do.

Tom Weston

God, Hate, Religion

321

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.

Elie Wiesel

Indifference

322

Most of the world’s biggest problems are because of somebody trying to find a simple answer.

Anthony Bourdain

Black and White Thinking, Gray Area

323

Nothing is more exhausting than the task that’s never started. –GRETCHEN RUBIN

Gretchen Rubin

Action, Procrastination

324

A man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see.

Black Elk

Fool, Vision

325

“‘I shall take the heart,’ returned the Tin Woodsman; ‘for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.’”

L. Frank Baum

Happiness

326

Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough-that we should try again.

Julia Cameron

perfectionism

327

Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.

Steve Maraboli

Happiness, Problem

328

I’ve never seen any life transformation that didn’t begin with the person in question finally getting tired of their own bullshit.

Elizabeth Gilbert

Self-improvement, Transformation

329

Do as little as needed, not as much as possible.

Henk Kraaijenhof

Busyness

330

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

Epicurus

Death, Fear, Memento mori

331

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

Epicurus

Death, Fear, Memento mori

332

"“There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.”"

Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield Essentialism

Essentialism, Priorities

(Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1746-47) Philip Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1746-47

333

The problem isn’t that you feel like shit. The problem is that you’re behaving like shit and then blaming it on your feelings.

Mark Manson

Behavior, Feelings, Self-help

https://youtu.be/c3uoyCNIa5c

334

Eventually .... Execution beats luck Consistency beats intensity Curiosity beats smart Kind beats clever Together beats alone

Unknown

Consistency, Curiosity, Kind

335

Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.

Don Miguel Ruiz

Assumptions, Taking Things Personally

From The Four Agreements

336

The largest part of what we call ‘personality’ is determined by how we’ve opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness.

Alain de Botton

Anger, Personality, Sadness

337

We do not want merely to see beauty. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves.

C.S. Lewis

Beauty, Nature

338

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.

Albert Ellis

Blame, Control, Responsibility

339

Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait — The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons, and results, and reasons simply don’t count.

Robert Anthony

Action, Procrastination, Results, Waiting

340

Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.

Jeezy Gregorek

Choices

341

The unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer him up, because that means he has to stop dwelling on himself and start paying attention to the universe. Unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence.

Tom Robbins

Self-indulgence, Unhappiness

342

Caretake This Moment. Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit the evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now. You are not some disinterested bystander. Participate. Exert yourself. Respect your partnership with providence. Ask yourself often, How may I perform this particular deed such that it would be consistent with and acceptable to the divine will? Heed the answer and get to work. When your doors are shut and your room is dark, you are not alone. The will of nature is within you as your natural genius is within. Listen to its importunings. Follow its directives. As concerns the art of living, the material is your own life. No great thing is created suddenly. There must be time. Give your best and always be kind.

Epictetus

Action, Morning Motivation

343

Dig deep within yourself, for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging.

Marcus Aurelius

Morning Motivation, Persistence

344

It always seems nicer to shut our eyes and hit the snooze button a few times. But we can’t—because we have a job to do. Not only do we have the calling we’re dedicated to, but we have the larger cause that the Stoics speak about: the greater good. We cannot be of service to ourselves, to other people, or to the world unless we get up and get working—the earlier the better. So c’mon. Get in the shower, have your coffee, and get going.

Ryan Holiday

Action, Morning Motivation, Prosum, Purpose, Service

How to Have the Best Week Ever - http://ryanholiday.net/)

345

This is the true joy in life: being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

George Bernard Shaw

Action, Morning Motivation, Purpose

346

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Marcus Aurelius

Perspective, Thoughts

347

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes the color of your thoughts.

Marcus Aurelius

Perspective, Thoughts

348

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Wayne Dyer

Perspective

349

When circumstances aren’t ideal, don’t assume you have no control. You always do. So instead of feeling bad that you can’t do everything, do something!

Gary Collins

Action

The Simple Life Guide to Optimal Health

350

Negative thoughts compound. The more you think of yourself as worthless, stupid, or ugly, the more you condition yourself to interpret life that way. You get trapped in a thought loop.

James Clear

Compounding, Negativity

Atomic Habits

351

Be radically proactive about any behavior that pays off in 10 years.

James Clear

Delayed Gratification, Habits, Proactive

352

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Maya Angelou

Courage, Virtue

353

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis

Courage, Virtue

354

I remember standing on a street corner with the black painter Beauford Delaney down in the Village waiting for the light to change, and he pointed down and said, ‘Look.’ I looked and all I saw was the water. And he said, ‘Look again,’ which I did, and I saw oil on the water and the city reflected in the puddle. It was a great revelation to me. I can’t explain it. He taught me how to see, and how to trust what I saw. Painters have often taught writers how to see. And once you’ve had that experience, you see differently.

James Baldwin

Awareness, Noticing, Seeing

355

Think small and act small, and we'll get bigger. Think big and act big, and we'll get smaller.

Herb Kelleher

Action, Ego

Southwest Airlines Founder and CEO

356

If your why isn't big enough ...your excuses will be.

Jason McKim

Excuses, Procrastination, Purpose, Why

357

“When she was once asked, ‘Do you pray?’ she responded, ‘I pray every second of my life; not on my knees but with my work. My prayer is to lift women to equality with men. Work and worship are one with me.’”

Susan B. Anthony

Action, Integrity, Prayer, Service

358

A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.

Marcus Aurelius

Action, Obstacle is the Way

359

In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

Yogi Berra

Action, Practice, Theory

360

You are under no obligation to remain the same person you were a year ago, a month ago, or even a day ago. You are here to create yourself, continuously.

Richard Feynman

Change, Self-improvement

361

Once, Kobun asked one of his students, “When all the teachers are gone, who will be your teacher?” The student replied, “Everything!” Kobun paused, then said, **“No, you.”**

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles

Education, Life-long Learner, Teacher

The Book of Ichigo Ichie

362

Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 per cent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself – and there isn’t one.

Wei Wu Wei

Ego, Happiness, Self

363

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fall/Autumn, Start

The Great Gatsby

364

What looks like talent is often careful preparation. What looks like skill is often persistent revision.

James Clear

Persistence, Preparation, Skill, Talent

365

One day after another— Perfect. They all fit.

Robert Creeley

Bird by bird

366

Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment. It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.

C.S. Lewis

Procrastination, Productivity

367

You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.

Marcus Aurelius

Memento mori

368

Never let your memories be bigger than your dreams.

Doug Ivester

Dreams, Future, Memories, Past

369

Why should you feel anger at the world, as if the world would notice?

Euripides

Anger, Control

370

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Wayne Dyer

Attention, Filter

371

Simplicity is the end result of long, hard work; not the starting point.

Frederick Maitland

Simplicity

372

You could be good today, but instead you choose tomorrow.

Marcus Aurelius

Carpe diem

"I’ve always found it’s better to think about what I want my ordinary life to look like most of the time. Then I try to make decisions based on the simple metric of whether they allow for more or less of that right now. A really cool job opportunity? I’ll consider it. But wait, it means I have to move my family to D.C., wear a suit most days, and be on someone else’s schedule? And I won’t be able to write much? Never mind, sorry. Oh, I could make a lot of money investing in startups? I like the sound of that. But I’ll have to read lots of pitch decks and go to lots of meetings? You know what, I’ll pass. I’m a firm believer that how long we live is outside of our control. I don’t feel comfortable trading the present for an uncertain future. “You could be good today,” the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote. “But instead you choose tomorrow.” That quote haunts me as much as it inspires me. And it does a lot of each." (http://ryanholiday.net/, You Could Have Today. Instead You Choose Tomorrow. - http://ryanholiday.net/)

373

It is not doubt but certainty that drives you mad.

Nietzsche

Certainty, Doubt

374

Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.

Satchel Paige

Dance, Life, Love, Money

375

Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.

Satchel Paige

Age, Aging

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/satchel-paige-how-to-stay-young?utm_source=GetTheElevatordotcom

376

Just remember that finishing lines are good, but their most important role is to get you over the start line in the first place.

Stevie Smith (not the poet)

Action, Progress

This little piece of wisdom is from . Stevie embarked on a human-powered journey around the world — Expedition 360 — and reached Hawaii under pedal power*. I learned about him from a little chapter in One Man and His Bike by Mike Carter. The chapter where he speaks with Stevie I immediately reread as soon as I finished it. Mike also shared this deeper and more poetic version of the same insight: “Happiness is the acceptance of the journey as it is now, not the promise of the other shore."

377

Happiness is the acceptance of the journey as it is now, not the promise of the other shore.

Stevie Smith (not the poet)

Happiness, Journey, Progress

378

It is as easy to deceive oneself without perceiving it as it is difficult to deceive others without their perceiving it.

François duc de La Rochefoucauld

Deception, Fool

379

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast endless sea.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Coaching, Motivation

380

Men see a little, presume a good deal, and so jump to the conclusion.

Thomas McRae

Assumptions, Simplicity

381

We are not given a short life, but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it.

Seneca

Action, Morning Motivation, Time

382

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Bruce Lee

Essentialism

383

Procrastinating on something important is choosing to delay a better future.

James Clear

Procrastination

384

What looks like a talent gap is often a focus gap. The 'all star' is often an average to above average performer who spends more time working on what is important and less time on distractions. The talent is staying focused.

James Clear

Distractions, Focus

385

Take a simple idea and take it seriously.

Charlie Munger

Essentialism

386

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

Samuel Johnson

Habits

387

We chase what's sexy and miss what matters. While excitement starts something, execution completes it. While speed makes a good story, velocity makes an outcome. While complexity makes you sound smart, focusing on the key basics matters more. While new commands our attention, nature offers insight.

Shane Parrish

Action, Attention, Direction, Essentialism, Insight, Simplicity

388

I cannot judge what he did, because I did not have his information.

Lee Kuan Yew

Judgement

former Prime Minister of Singapore

389

You could be good today. But instead, you choose tomorrow.

Marcus Aurelius

Priorities, Procrastination, Shit or Get Off the Pot

390

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them — work, family, health, friends, and spirit… and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls — family, health, friends, and spirit — are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same.

Brian Dyson

Priorities, Work/Life Balance

Former CEO of Coca-Cola

391

Human beings need forgiveness like we need oxygen — a nation devoid of grace will make its people miserable.

David French

Forgiveness, Grace

392

There are professional habits and amateur ones. Which are you practicing? Is this a pro or an amateur move? Ask yourself that. Constantly.

Ryan Holiday

Habits, Professionalism

Adapted from Stephen Pressfield

393

When someone tells you something is wrong, they’re almost always right. When someone tells you how to fix it, they’re almost always wrong. This applies to both writing and life.

Ryan Holiday

Advice, Truth, Wrong

But from many others

394

Give more./Give what you didn’t get./Love more./Drop the old story.

Garry Shandling

Change Attitude, Giving, Love

395

“That’s the problem with clarity,” responded the Avatar. “It often sounds insulting.”

Scott Adams

Clarity, Honesty, Truth

From The Religion War

396

C.S. Lewis

Present, Time, Work

397

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

Alexander Graham Bell

Concentration, Focus

398

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.

Muhammad Ali

Service

399

Feed a man a fish, feed him for a night. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to reason from first principles, he can teach himself to fish. Then he can invent a better fishing rod and feed a billion people.

Tim Urban

First principals

400

Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away, you write, and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast. And if what is near you is far away, then your vastness is already among the stars and is very great; be happy about your growth, in which of course you can’t take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don’t torment them with your doubts and don’t frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn’t be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn’t necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust. Avoid providing material for the drama that is always stretched tight between parents and children; it uses up much of the children’s strength and wastes the love of the elders, which acts and warms even if it doesn’t comprehend. Don’t ask for any advice from them and don’t expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Expectations

Growth

401

“It’s dark because you’re trying too hard,” said Susila. “Dark because you want it to be light. Remember what you used to tell me when I was a little girl. ‘Lightly, child, lightly. You’ve got to learn to do everything lightly. Think lightly, act lightly, feel lightly. Yes, feel lightly, even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.’ I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig. Lightly, lightly—it was the best advice ever given me.

Well, now I’m going to say the same thing to you, Lakshmi . . . Lightly, my darling, lightly. Even when it comes to dying. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic. No rhetoric, no tremolos, no self-conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Goethe or Little Nell. And, of course, no theology, no metaphysics. Just the fact of dying and the fact of the Clear Light.

So throw away all your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly, my darling. On tiptoes; and no luggage, not even a sponge bag. Completely unencumbered.”

Aldous Huxley

From the novel Island

402

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.

Pablo Picasso

Meaning of life

There are no rows in this table

⁠

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.

All QuotesAll Quotes

All Quotes
All Quotes