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1
The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed.
William Gibson
Future
2
In life, we cannot always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The second arrow is optional.
Buddha
3
Let go or be dragged.
Zen Proverb
4
Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is; and to awaken this capacity, in oneself and in others, is education.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Education
Intelligence
5
The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action in mind.
Frank Herbert
Trust
Distrust
Guru
6
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their views, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
Tecumseh
7
If a male enjoys dressing up and behaving like a woman, he was born that way. If a female enjoys dressing up and behaving like a woman, she was brainwashed by society.
Rob Henderson
Sexuality
Society
8
Who can say if the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thoughts I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the qualia of our consciousnesses are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe. ​ And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly. ​ Does the thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human? ​ We live for such miracles.
Ken Liu
Reading
Writing
Miracles
9
Health lies in action, and so it graces youth. To be busy is the secret of grace, and half the secret of content. Let us ask the gods not for possessions, but for things to do; happiness is in making things rather than in consuming them.
Will Durant
Action
Happiness
10
I have learned that whenever I think "I don't have enough time to do that" what I usually mean is "I don't have enough energy" or "I am not actually interested in doing this." What I need to do a better job of is not managing my time, but rather caring for myself and identifying my true interests. When I am well rested and working on something I am genuinely excited about, finding time is rarely a problem.
James Clear
Priorities
Time
Values
11
It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required."
Winston Churchill
Duty
12
No one should abandon duties because he sees defects in them. Every action, every activity, is surrounded by defects as a fire is surrounded by smoke.
Krishna
Duty
Defects
From The Bhagavad Gita
13
A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
Logic
Rationality
14
Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.
Howard Aiken
Ideas
Theft
Stealing
15
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
Neil Gaiman
From Coraline
16
The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process, is its own reward.
Amelia Earhart
Action
Growth
17
If you pick someone, you're really safe. If they pick you, you have to be careful.
Pen Jillette
18
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

19
Don’t be the person who says yes with their mouth but no with their actions. - Ryan Holiday
20
Don't slay dragons that aren't in your way. - Jordan Peterson
21
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
22
A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. - Herbert Simon
23
The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. - George Bernard Shaw
24
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
25
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. - John Maxwell
26
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. - Anne Lamott
27
Select your purpose … selfless, without any thought of personal pleasure or personal profit, and then use selfless means to attain your goal. - Gandhi
28
If you are to have a great kingdom,” he said, “rule over yourself! - Publius Syrus
29
The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks. - Christopher Hitchens
30
You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end. - Shane Parrish, Farnham Street
31
To get what you want, deserve what you want. Trust, success, and admiration are earned. - Charlie Munger
32
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
33
We already know what we need to do. - United States Navy Seal and Rhodes Scholar Eric Greitens
34
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
35
Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman. - Coco Chanel
36
You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything. - John Maxwell
37
Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. - Maya Angelou
38
There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't even started wondering about yet. - Roald Dahl
39
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
40
A man is about as big as the things that make him angry. - Winston Churchill
41
Between two evils, I generally like to pick the one I never tried before. - Mae West
42
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
43
The best things in life are free. The second best things are very, very expensive. - Coco Chanel
44
All cruelty springs from weakness. - Seneca
45
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
46
The busy man is least busy with living. - Seneca
47
The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. - David Foster Wallace
48
Tell me what you need and I'll tell you how to live without it. - Altai mountain local skier from Warren Miller movie
49
The wound is the place where light enters you. - Rumi
50
For the mediocre there is no hope. Mediocrity is a sin.” –“The Tramp,” War of the Classes - Jack London
51
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
52
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
53
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."
54
The only aspect of your life that fortune does not have control over is your behavior. - Nassim Taleb
55
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. - Henry David Thoreau
56
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
57
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).
58
We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one. - Confucius
59
As long as you live, keep learning how to live. - Seneca
60
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
61
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. - Scott Adams
62
Be who you needed when you were younger. - T.S. Elliot
63
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.
64
"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.”"
65
There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. - Louis L’Amour
66
We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are. - Anais Nin
67
All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast. - John Gunther
68
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
69
Success generally comes after you start. If you think success comes before you start, the world probably looks confusing to you. - Scott Adams
70
The pattern I observe that says complexity always hides the future, as opposed to predicting it. - Scott Adams
71
Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life. – Jerzy Gregorek
72
Well done is better than well said. - Benjamin Franklin
73
The source of wisdom is whatever is going to happen to us today. - Pema Chödrön
74
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
75
To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated. - James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games
76
Sometimes it is not enough to do our best; we must do what is required. - Winston Churchill
77
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
78
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
79
It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously. -Peter Ustinov
80
The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret. - Nido Qubein
81
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
82
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
83
Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world. - George Bernard Shaw
84
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
85
There is no way to happiness -- happiness is the way. - Thich Nhat Hanh.
86
Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away. – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
87
It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows. - Epictetus
88
We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training. - Archilochus
89
Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. - John Muir
90
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. - John Muir
91
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
92
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. - Lewis B. Smedes
93
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
94
Time has no practical value without attention. - Tim Ferriss
95
How much time are you spending deciding what to spend time on? - Seth Godin
96
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. - Henry David Thoreau
97
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike. - Oscar Wilde
98
A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. - Bruce Lee
99
Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own - Bruce Lee
100
To me, ‘busy’ implies that the person is out of control of their life. - Derek Sivers
101
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. - Mark Twain
102
Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. - Mark Twain
103
The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself. - Mark Twain
104
The preparation for the ritual is the ritual. - Kate Green
105
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
106
Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood. - Leonardo DaVinci
107
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
108
Train your expectation to appreciation. - Tony Robbins
109
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
110
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle
111
Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
112
The greatest dignity to be found in death is the dignity of the life that preceded it. - Sherwin B. Nuland
113
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
114
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
115
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
116
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
117
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
118
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. - Winston Churchill
119
Normality is a paved road: it's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it. - Vincent Van Gogh.
120
Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.' - Lao Tzu
121
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
122
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
123
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
124
People forget the brain lives inside the body. If the body's unhealthy, the brain's unhealthy. - Joe De Sena
125
To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition. -Samuel Johnson
126
Do fewer things. Do them better. Know why you're doing them. - Call Newport
127
Either you run the day or the the day runs you. - Jim Rohn
128
Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development. - Jim Rohn
129
If you don't have a plan to interrupt your interruptions your plans will always be interrupted. Period. - Peter Voogd.
130
Behind every feeling is nothing, but behind every principle and value is a promise. - Eric Thomas
131
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)
132
When I double my rate of failure I double my rate of success. - James Swanwick, former ESPN anchor
133
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
134
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
135
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. - Gloria Steiner
136
The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. - Karl Marx
137
Ability is what you are capable of, motivation determines what you do, but attitude determines how well you do it. - Lou Holtz
138
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
139
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
140
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
141
For every inside there is an outside, and for every outside there is an inside; though they are different, they go together. - Alan Watts
142
More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them. - Harold J. Smith
143
What a man hasn't been reasoned into believing, he cannot be reasoned out of believing.
144
Success hinges less on getting everything right than on how you handle getting things wrong. - Michelle Russel
145
People think of education as something they can finish. - Isaac Asimov
146
Much of education is oriented toward making a living rather than making a LIFE. - Dr. Walsh
147
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
148
You can only lose what you cling to. -Buddha
149
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better. - Maya Angelou
150
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
151
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
152
Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it. —Steve Prefontaine
153
Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. - Thomas Jefferson
154
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
155
The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas. - Carl Sagan
156
The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life. - Euripides
157
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
158
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
159
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in. ― Leonardo da Vinci
160
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).
161
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
162
We are here and it is now: further than that all human knowledge is moonshine. - H. L. Mencken, 1880 - 1956
163
A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds.
164
Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty. - John D. Rockafeller
165
Save when you can and not when you have to.
166
Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed. - John D. Rockafeller
167
It was my pride that I was taken in as an equal, in spirit as well as in fact. - Jack London
168
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
169
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
170
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
171
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. - William Morris
172
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
173
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
174
Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. - Chuck Close
175
The truth is that the dreams that you have are very different from the actions that will get you there. - James Clear
176
It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. - William Faulkner likening gratitude to electricity
177
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
178
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
179
Mission Statement: A long awkward sentence that demonstrates management's inability to think clearly.
Scott Adams
Mission statement
180
The Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage - Management. - Scott Adams
181
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
182
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
183
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
184
Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced. - Søren Kierkegaard, 1813 - 1855
185
People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones. - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958
186
The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution. - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958
187
If you want to kill any idea in the world today, get a committee working on it. - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958
188
If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong. - Charles F. Kettering, 1876 - 1958
189
The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time. - Dante Alighieri, 1265 - 1312
190
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
191
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
192
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
193
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
194
People don't like the true and simple; they like fairy tales and humbug. - Edmond de Goncourt, 1822 - 1896
195
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
196
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
197
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
198
Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it. - Professor Dumbledore
199
Don’t look at the wall. Your car goes where your eyes go. - Mario Andretti
200
Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice. - Bob Goff
201
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
202
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."
203
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
204
With an obedient and disciplined brain a man live always right up to the standard of his best moments. - Arnold Bennett, The Human Machine
205
As Milton wrote inParadise Lost, “[The mind] can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.”
206
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
207
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
208
Here's a rule I recommend. Never practice two vices at once. - Tallulah Bankhead, 1902 - 1968
209
Don’t be the person who says yes with their mouth but no with their actions.” - Ryan Holiday
210
In the information game, the race doesn’t go to the swift, it goes to the selective. - Tim Ferriss
211
The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning. - James Clear
212
Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours. - Richard Bach
213
My schedule is far less about what I want to get done and far more about who I want to become. - Bill Hybel
214
The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept. - Thucydides
215
If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals. - Brian Tracy
216
The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he becomes. - Soren Kierkegaard
217
If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's. - Joseph Campbell
218
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not. - Epicurus
219
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
220
The most courageous decision that you can make each day is to be in a good mood. - Voltaire
221
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. - Rainer Maria Rilke
222
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
223
Things usually happen around us, not to us. - Unknown, found on Reddit
224
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
225
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction. - John F. Kennedy
226
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
227
There is no past and no future; no one has ever entered those two imaginary kingdoms. There is only the present. - Leo Tolstoy
228
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
229
We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. - Carl Sagan
230
It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less. - Nathan W. Morris
231
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
232
We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is. - Arnold Bennett
233
You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. - Arnold Bennett
234
Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense. - Marcus Aurelius
235
As kids, we move a lot without thinking, but as grown-ups we think too much without moving. - Erwan Le Corre
236
I change my mind when the facts change. What do you do? - John Maynard Keynes
237
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. - Socrates
238
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
239
Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions-not outside. - Marcus Aurelius
240
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
241
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. - Heraclitus
242
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
243
I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had. - Margaret Mead
244
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
245
Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play. - Heraclitus
246
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
247
Keeping one’s distance from an ignorant person is equivalent to keeping company with a wise man. - Ali Bin Abi-Taleb
248
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
249
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. - Wayne Dyer
250
You might feel dumb asking questions, but you look dumber when you don't get it because you failed to ask.
251
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
252
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
253
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
254
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see. - Arthur Schopenhauer
255
Anger has a honey tip, but a poison source. - Buddha
256
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
257
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
258
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
259
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
260
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
261
There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do anything worth doing. - Goethe
262
It is not enough to know, we must also apply; it is not enough to will, we must also do. - Goethe
263
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
264
“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
265
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
266
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.
267
Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore. - Albert Einstein
268
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)
269
Ignorance more often begets confidence than knowledge. - Charles Darwin
270
He who least needs tomorrow, will most gladly greet tomorrow. - Epicurus
271
Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all. - Pericles
272
If all you did was just looked for things to appreciate, you would live a joyously spectacular life. - Esther Abraham Hicks
273
Let go or be dragged. - Zen Proverb
274
When we have alternatives, we compromise instead of commit. - Seth Godin
275
Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyways. - Glennon Doyle Melton
276
Beware the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world. - Ben Okri
277
The gulf between competence and incompetence amplifies the more competence is needed. - Shane Parrish, Farnham Street
278
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
279
Concentration produces wealth. Diversification protects wealth. - James Clear
280
Always be excited about the possibilities. Never be entitled to them."
281
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
282
In a world where information is abundant and easy to access, the real advantage is knowing where to focus. - James Clear
283
The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. - Ernest Hemingway
284
Every day of our lives, we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference. - Mignon McLaughlin
285
Praise invariably implies a reference to a higher standard. - Aristotle
286
Life is not only a pleasure but a kind of eccentric privilege. - G.K. Chesterton (it’s been granted to us)
287
The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have. - Epictetus
288
If you can't do it with feeling - don't. - Patsy Cline
289
You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go. - Jeannette Rankin
290
The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. - E.O. Wilson
291
The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons. - Aristotle
292
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
293
A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home. - Rumi
294
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
295
Envy of other people shows how they are unhappy. Their continual attention to others behavior shows how they are boring. - Seneca
296
Society tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all. - Nietzsche
297
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
298
Don’t postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson. - Alan Cohen
299
Imagine how you want to feel at the end of the day. Start working towards that now. - Lin-Manuel Miranda
300
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
301
Don't count the days. Make the days count. - Muhammad Ali
302
Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor with you playing the part of the suffering hero. - David D. Burns
303
The grass is always greener because it’s been fertilised with bullshit. Enjoy what you have. - @pTah_XV (twitter user)
304
Get up! Do not lie there ‘thinking.’ Nothing good every came from that. Get up! Begin your day! - Paramahansa Yogananda
305
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now! - Goethe
306
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
307
If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading. - Lao Tzu
308
If someone could only see my actions and not hear my words, what would they say are my priorities? - James Clear
309
If you have good habits, time becomes your ally. All you need is patience. - James Clear
310
A good listener is one who helps us overhear ourselves. - Yahia Lababidi
311
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
312
Asking myself "is this helping me get what I want" is becoming one of my favorite questions. - Shane Parrish
313
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. - Eden Phillpotts
314
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
315
The more control you have over your attention, the more control you have over your future. - James Clear
316
Anything that's human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. - Fred Rogers
317
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
318
What you are aware of you are in control of. What you are not aware of is in control of you. - Anthony De Mello
319
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
320
Give equal space to the thought, "What if it all works out?" - Colleen Jornlin (Twitter @gggingersnappp)
321
There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. - Vladimir Lenin
322
Don’t look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity. - Paul Arden
323
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]]
324
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
325
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/)
326
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]]
327
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]]
328
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
329
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
330
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
331
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
332
You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness, change your expectation.
Bette Davis
Expectations
Happiness
333
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
334
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
335
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
336
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
337
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
Elie Wiesel
Indifference
338
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
339
Nothing is more exhausting than the task that’s never started. –GRETCHEN RUBIN
Gretchen Rubin
Action
Procrastination
340
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
341
“‘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
342
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
343
Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.
Steve Maraboli
Happiness, Problem
344
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
345
Do as little as needed, not as much as possible.
Henk Kraaijenhof
Busyness
346
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
347
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
348
"“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
349
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
350
Eventually .... Execution beats luck Consistency beats intensity Curiosity beats smart Kind beats clever Together beats alone
Unknown
Consistency, Curiosity, Kind
351
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
352
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
353
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
354
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
355
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
356
Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.
Jeezy Gregorek
Choices
357
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
358
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
359
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
360
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/)
361
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
362
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius
Perspective, Thoughts
363
The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes the color of your thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius
Perspective, Thoughts
364
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
Wayne Dyer
Perspective
365
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
366
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
367
Be radically proactive about any behavior that pays off in 10 years.
James Clear
Delayed Gratification, Habits, Proactive
368
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
369
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
370
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
371
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
372
If your why isn't big enough ...your excuses will be.
Jason McKim
Excuses, Procrastination, Purpose, Why
373
“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
374
A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.
Marcus Aurelius
Action
Obstacle is the Way
375
In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
Yogi Berra
Action
Practice Theory
376
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
377
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
378
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
379
Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fall/Autumn, Start
The Great Gatsby
380
What looks like talent is often careful preparation. What looks like skill is often persistent revision.
James Clear
Persistence, Preparation, Skill, Talent
381
One day after another— Perfect. They all fit.
Robert Creeley
Bird by bird
382
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
383
You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.
Marcus Aurelius
Memento mori
384
Never let your memories be bigger than your dreams.
Doug Ivester
Dreams, Future, Memories, Past
385
Why should you feel anger at the world, as if the world would notice?
Euripides
Anger, Control
386
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
Wayne Dyer
Attention, Filter
387
Simplicity is the end result of long, hard work; not the starting point.
Frederick Maitland
Simplicity
388
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/)
389
It is not doubt but certainty that drives you mad.
Nietzsche
Certainty, Doubt
390
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
391
Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.
Satchel Paige
Age, Aging
392
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."
393
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
394
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
395
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
396
Men see a little, presume a good deal, and so jump to the conclusion.
Thomas McRae
Assumptions, Simplicity
397
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
398
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
399
Procrastinating on something important is choosing to delay a better future.
James Clear
Procrastination
400
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
401
Take a simple idea and take it seriously.
Charlie Munger
Essentialism
402
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
Samuel Johnson
Habits
403
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
404
I cannot judge what he did, because I did not have his information.
Lee Kuan Yew
Judgement
former Prime Minister of Singapore
405
You could be good today. But instead, you choose tomorrow.
Marcus Aurelius
Priorities, Procrastination, Shit or Get Off the Pot
406
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
407
Human beings need forgiveness like we need oxygen — a nation devoid of grace will make its people miserable.
David French
Forgiveness, Grace
408
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
409
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
410
Give more./Give what you didn’t get./Love more./Drop the old story.
Garry Shandling
Change Attitude, Giving, Love
411
“That’s the problem with clarity,” responded the Avatar. “It often sounds insulting.”
Scott Adams
Clarity, Honesty, Truth
From The Religion War
412
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
Present, Time, Work
413
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
414
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.
Muhammad Ali
Service
415
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
416
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
417
“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
418
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
Pablo Picasso
Meaning of life
419
All religions are true, but none are literal.
Joseph Campbell
Religion
420
Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden
Limiting beliefs
421
We live in a world of magnificent maybe.
Steven Kotler
Uncertainty
Belief
"In The White Album, Joan Didion wrote "We tell ourselves stories in order to live" and then proceeded to tell a story about a time in her life when the stories she told herself began to fail. Maybe that's how it is for all of us. Maybe that's how things go. Maybe we tell ourselves such stories right up until the moment we can no longer tell ourselves such stories. We believe the earth is flat until we believe it is round. We believe in a geocentric universe until we believe in a heliocentric universe. We believe that heliocentric universe governed by a fixed logic until we believe that heliocentric universe all relative. We believe the speed of light is inviolate, until we find out that entangled particles could outpace the speed of light. Scientists now believe that the quantum world is a world of possibility. They believe that our most fundamental level of reality is not any one firm reality, rather the possibility of an infinite number of possibilities. We cannot find the cornerstone of our foundation because everything and nothing are the cornerstones of our foundation. **We live in a world of magnificent maybe.** And every now and again someone rattles the bones of the past in the direction of the future in the hopes that a wave will rise." (Steven Kotler, West of Jesus)
422
Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
Uncertainty
Certainty
423
Felix culpa
Tim Ferriss
Felix culpa. “Felix culpa is a Latin phrase that comes from the words felix, meaning ‘happy,’ ‘lucky,’ or ‘blessed,’ and culpa, meaning ‘fault’ or ‘fall.’ In the Catholic tradition, the phrase is most often translated ‘happy fault,’ as in the Catholic Exsultet. Other translations include ‘blessed fall’ or ‘fortunate fall.’” More broadly and put another way in Oxford Languages: “an apparent error or disaster with happy consequences.”
424
If an action tires your body and puts your heart at ease, do it.
Xunxi
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