Quotes¶
The quickest way to become an old dog is to quit learning new tricks.
Kenneth L. Higbee Ph.D, Your Memory, 2001
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare.
Muhammad Ali
Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.
Naval R
Subordinating your ego is actually the ultimate form of self-confidence.
Jocko
The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now.
Zig Ziglar
If you really want to separate your work from everyone else’s, every time you come to a Y in the road, don’t think about which way to go; take the toughest route. Everyone else is taking the easiest one.
Richard Serra
We believe in a particular order not because it is objectively true, but because believing in it enables us to cooperate effectively and forge a better society
Sapiens
Most people reading this will already be fairly tolerant. But there is a step beyond thinking of yourself as x but tolerating y: not even to consider yourself an x. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.
Great men cultivate love and only little men cherish a spirit of hatred; assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.
Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery
Being a good person is the most potent marketing vehicle there is.
Tom Bilyeu
Success that isn't shared is failure.
Anon
The most important question you can ever ask is if the world is a friendly place.
Einstein
Cynicism is the cubic zirconia of intelligence.
jtr's college friend
In life, whoever has the strongest reality wins.
Neil Strauss, The Truth
If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.
Timothy Leary
Did you ever stop to think that anyone who takes this as personally as you do is doing it wrong?
CIA Bill, Narcos
I'm not trying to be right, I'm not afraid of being wrong, and I have nothing to defend.
Robert Rabbin
Science is the only news. When you scan a news portal or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same cyclical dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness; even the technology is predictable if you know the science behind it. Human nature doesn't change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly
Stewart Brand
Our age is essentially one of understanding and reflection, without passion, momentarily bursting into enthusiasm, and shrewdly relapsing into repose…. There is no more action or decision in our day than there is perilous delight in swimming in shallow waters.
Kierkegaard, Søren, Two Ages: A Literary Review
People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions and help them throw rocks at their enemies.
The One Sentence Persuasion Course
A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
Perseverance is a virtue of the less brilliant.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Your friends won’t start supporting you until strangers start celebrating you.
Oprah(!)
Don't worry, I've got it.
What your spouse wants to hear
I bet on you.
What to say to your spouse
For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
Shakespeare
Creation is a better means of self-expression than possession; it is through creating, not possessing, that life is revealed.
Vida D. Scudder, The Life of the Spirit in the Modern English Poet
Not needing wealth is more valuable than wealth itself.
While kissing your child, silently reflect on the possibility that she will die tomorrow.
Stoicism
Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Lazarus Long (Robert Heinlein) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competent_man
Cynicism is a disease that robs people of the gift of life.
Rainn Wilson
A man is what he thinks about all day long .
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Being kind is fundamentally about taking responsibility for your impact on the people around you. It requires you be mindful of their feelings and considerate of the way your presence affects them.
People will forget what you said / People will forget what you did / But people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
Also:
It’s not just the words but it’s also the ‘tune’ that counts
Audrey Hepburn
And similarly:
They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.
— Carl W. Buehner, Mormon guy
My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.
Anthony Hopkins
…security is about thoroughly understanding a piece of technology, asking questions, and deconstructing the whole thing until it makes sense. The deeper you dig, the easier it is to toy with it afterward.
If one were to attempt to identify a single problematic aspect of human reasoning that deserves attention above all others, the confirmation bias would have to be among the candidates for consideration
Self employment is a never-ending contest between the world’s worst manager and the world’s laziest employee.
There is no requirement that enlightenment be painful, unless you are trying to avoid pain. Then the universe has no choice but to teach you through pain.
Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks
We have to choose between feeling smarter or becoming smarter.
Sönke Ahrens
Putting these conclusions together, this controlling insight can serve as the One Thing you need to know about happy marriage: Find the most generous explanation for each other’s behavior and believe it.
Marcus Buckingham Prior: Principle of charity
If you wish to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Epictetus, Enchiridion (c. AD 135)
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
Niels Bohr
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Will Durant, paraphrasing Aristotle (The Story of Philosophy, 1926)
We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.
Attributed to Archilochus (7th century BCE)