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Quotes

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only for wallowing in.
It's harder to be kind than clever.
Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. My friend Harry taught that, he chose to be the best of himself. It's the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what's right.
Life will pay what you ask of it.
The more clear you are about exactly what it is you want, the more the brain knows how to get there.
The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.
Nobody ever gets to see what could have been.
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. ~ Lincoln
A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. ~ Lincoln
And Lord knows, kids like Henry need a hero. Courageous, self-sacrificing people. Setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them, cheer them, scream their names. And years later, they'll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them how to hold on a second longer. I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.
Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
Eliminate desire for all that doesn't really matter.
If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me "A faster horse."
No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher. Teacher say, student do.
I will prepare and someday my chance will come.
Without the possibility of failure, there is no possibility of success.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.
Leaders can let you fail, and yet not let you be a failure.
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
Your model of the world is what shapes you long term.
An internal reason for doing something is always going to push you to more excellence than any salary or stock options your company can give you.
The further you're going to go in life, in your career, depends more on whether you're well liked by the people among you than by your grades in school.
You're at that change where your personality will stay stable for life. If you're a jerk now, you're going to be a jerk forever.
Real loss is only possible when you love something more than you love yourself.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
The purpose of life isn't to be happy. The purpose of life is to make others happy.
True focus lies between rage and serenity.
Always stand on principle, even if you stand alone.
Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy, and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I'm flesh and blood. I can be ignored, I can be destroyed. But as a symbol, as a symbol, I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.
It's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you.
To manipulate the fear in others, you must first master your own.
Men fear most what they cannot see.
Theatricality and deception are powerful agents. You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent.
If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal and if they can't stop you, you become something else entirely, a legend.
It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed, it is the things we do not.
We cooperate and we fight as hard as we can because there will perhaps be disappointment, but there will be no shame.
It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention.
Whether you fear it, or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that from true disappointment, you can gain clarity, and with clarity, comes conviction and true originality.
Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.
There are few things more liberating than having you worst fear realized.
One's dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, and changing course.
Being arrogant is going to limit what you're going to be able to accomplish in your life.
You can't get there alone (Karma). Tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when you screw up, and focus on others, not yourself.
Brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don't really want to achieve their childhood dreams.
Don't complain; just work harder.
Be prepared: "luck" is where preparation meets opportunity.
True leadership is about making other people better as a result of your presence-and making sure your impact endures in your absence.
All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up.
Almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
We don't make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.
For the first 30 years of your life, you make your habits. For the last 30 years of your life, your habits make you.
It is the quality of one's convictions that determines success, not the number of followers.
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.
Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.
Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice.
Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Fashion for the most part is nothing but the ostentation of riches. ~ John Locke
Where there is no property there is no injustice. ~ John Locke
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. ~ William James
The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away. ~ Marcus Aurelius
There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse. ~ Seneca
Honor is the reward of virtue. ~ Cicero
No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline. ~ Seneca
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. ~ Confucius
Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute. ~ Seneca
Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason. ~ Cicero
Good habits formed at youth make all the difference. ~ Aristotle
By a lie, a man... annihilates his dignity as a man. ~ Kant
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it. ~ Epictetus
To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power. ~ Seneca
Hatred is inveterate anger. ~ Cicero
The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory. ~ Cicero
Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me. ~ Socrates
If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil. ~ Spinoza
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them. ~ Montesquieu
One must steer, not talk. ~ Seneca
Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion. ~ Cicero
Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator. ~ Cicero
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. ~ Aristotle
The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others. ~ Cicero
Ability without honor is useless. ~ Cicero
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. ~ Epictetus
To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness. ~ Confucius
No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. ~ Plato
The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. ~ Machiavelli
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~ Plato
Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice. ~ William James
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. ~ Confucius
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it. ~ Seneca
Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. ~ Confucius
It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right - especially when one is right. ~ Nietzsche
The discipline of desire is the background of character. ~ John Locke
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it. ~ Seneca
To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation. ~ Saint Augustine
Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed. ~ Schopenhauer
Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost. ~ Schopenhauer
The secret to humor is surprise. ~ Aristotle
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead. ~ Aristotle
Each problem that I solved became a rule, which served afterwards to solve other problems. ~ Descartes
There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality. ~ Seneca
It's never too late to start heading in the right direction.
He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature. ~ Socrates
Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure. ~ Confucius
I am indeed amazed when I consider how weak my mind is and how prone to error. ~ Descartes
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. ~ John Locke
Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great. ~ Machiavelli
Man can alter his life by altering his thinking. ~ William James
Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat. ~ Sartre
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. ~ Antoine de Saint Exupery
I pay close attention to the body language of who I am communicating with. While I am speaking, are they bored? excited? indifferent? curious? If you don't take notice of all this then you are just lecturing. If and when you do, then you are empowered to discover the conduits of contact that can maximize the value and meaning of what you are saying to others.
Never was anything great achieved without danger. ~ Machiavelli
The object of the superior man is truth. ~ Confucius
The wise man does at once what the fool does finally. ~ Machiavelli
The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. ~ Karl Marx
If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others. ~ Aristotle
To ask permission is to seek denial.
It's better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy.
Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today. ~ Seneca
I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday, and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.
Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. ~ William James
There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage. ~ Seneca
Fortune favors the bold. ~ Virgil
No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. ~ Confucius
Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance. ~ Plato
All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. ~ Aristotle
We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right. ~ Seneca
Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance. ~ Plato
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult ~ Seneca
Some days, everything changes.
Patience is the companion of wisdom. ~ Saint Augustine
If you advance confidently in the direction of your own dreams, and endeavor to live the life that you have imagined, you will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. ~ Henry David Thoreau
If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it. ~ Cicero
The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues. ~ Descartes
Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. ~ William James
Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power. ~ William James
If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success. ~ John D. Rockefeller
Perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.
Don't pity the dead. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.
I always surprise myself on my ability to turn a phrase. Words are, in my not so humble opinion, the most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.
If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next.
You can't change the game if you play by the existing rules.
An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all ~ Socrates
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self. ~ William James
Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first. ~ Schopenhauer
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. ~ Socrates
The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away. ~ Marcus Aurelius
No man is free who is not master of himself. ~ Epictetus
Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter. ~ Nietzsche
To create something that is genuinely new, you have to start again; And with great intent, you disconnect from the past.
People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it. Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway. You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better. ~ Ray Bradbury
Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that's a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That's not simple. The quest for simplicity has to pervade every part of the process. It really is fundamental.
He who is brave is free. ~ Seneca
The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster. ~ David Hume
A genuine change must first come from within the individual, only then can he or she attempt to make a significant contribution to humanity.
Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is? ~ Saint Augustine
To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. ~ Cicero
There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot. ~ Plato
I saw my life as an arc and that it would end, and compared to that nothing mattered. You're born alone, you're going to die alone. And does anything else really matter?
Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance. ~ Virgil
Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit. ~ Epictetus
You will give the people an ideal to strive towards. They will rise behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.
To those whom much is given, much is expected. ~ JFK
Man [surprises me most about humanity]. Because he sacrifices his health to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. Then he is so anxious about his future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived. ~ Dalai Lama
If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please. ~ Epictetus
We are not trying to entertain the critics. I'll take my chances with the public. ~ Walt Disney
We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. ~ Seneca
If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick. ~ William James
Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly. ~ Epictetus
The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger. ~ Seneca
The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it. ~ Seneca
Things which are different in order simply to be different are seldom better, but that which is made to be better is almost always different. ~ Dieter Rams
Fake it until you become it.
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. ~ Seneca
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution ~ Machiavelli
Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well. ~ Rousseau
I don't like that man. I must get to know him better. ~ Lincoln
Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It just means you think more of others.
Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete. ~ Sartre
A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for? ~ Robert Browning
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. ~ Shakespeare
We can succeed only by concert. It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. ~ Lincoln
Do something completely unexpected every single day. It's disarming.
There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse. ~ John Locke
The greatest wealth is to live content with little. ~ Plato
Revolutions are the locomotives of history. ~ Karl Marx
We can't choose where we come from, but we can choose where we go from there.
If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you, and you will never learn. ~ Ray Bradbury
Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from.
The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~ Plato
The superior man makes the difficulty to be overcome his first interest; success only comes later. ~ Confucius
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. ~ MLK
If you raised your voice, you've lost the argument.
Never think you have time.
There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk. ~ Sartre
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. ~ Murphy's law
We ought not to look back, unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear bought experience. ~ Washington
If you believe and you're willing to step out of your comfort zone, life will begin at the edge of your comfort zone.
To achieve goals you have never achieved before, you need to do things you have never done before.
If other people are putting in 40-hour workweeks, and you're putting in 100-hour workweeks, then, even if you're doing the same thing, you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.
Excuses are tools of the incompetent, used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
I criticize by creation - not by finding fault. ~ Cicero
It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them. ~ Epictetus
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances. ~ Aristotle
You are a little soul carrying around a corpse. ~ Epictetus
Vision without execution is hallucination. ~ Edison
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor. ~ Aristotle
Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence. ~ Aristotle
The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, among which no one fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. ~ Jefferson
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity. ~ Seneca
The less men think, the more they talk. ~ Montesquieu
De omnibus dubitandum. (Doubt/be suspicious of everything.) ~ Descartes
Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak. ~ Cicero
The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles. ~ Karl Marx
The surest sign of an amateur player is a premature advance on the king.
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. ~ R. Kennedy
The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. ~ King
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. ~ King
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~ King
Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces. ~ Machiavelli
Cogito ergo sum. ~ Descartes
In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed. ~ Montesquieu
Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them. ~ Sartre
To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often. ~ Churchill
A fault is fostered by concealment. ~ Virgil
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. ~ Shakespeare
Mercy is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. ~ Shakespeare
There is no great genius without some touch of madness. ~ Seneca
A man's as miserable as he thinks he is. ~ Seneca
The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself. ~ Plato
Gloria in excelsis Deo (glory to God in the highest).
Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. ~ Aeschylus
I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don't know the other side's argument better than they do. ~ Charlie Munger
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it. ~ Seneca
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. ~ Mark Twain
Time passes irrevocably. ~ Virgil
Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature. ~ Cicero
Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine. ~ Tesla
The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company. ~ Seneca
Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand. ~ Karl Marx
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful. ~ Seneca
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ~ Edison
Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war. ~ Mark Antony, Act III, Scene I, "Julius Caesar", Shakespeare
Gloria in excelsis Deo. (Glory to God in the highest.)
Beware of local maxima; always keep exploring.
The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious. ~ Marcus Aureliu
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. ~ Thoreau
The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due. ~ Cicero
You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. ~ Robin Williams
There is no greater danger than playing it safe.
To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time. ~ Leonard Bernstein
Fear is proof of a degenerate mind. ~ Virgil
Set free the oppressed, break every yoke, clothe the naked, and your light shall break forth like the dawn, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. ~ Isaiah
One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others. ~ Machiavelli
Risk everything.
Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. ~ Aristotle
There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others. ~ Machiavelli
The sinews of war are infinite money. ~ Cicero
All cruelty springs from weakness. ~ Seneca
How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks. ~ Marcus Aurelius
You can't conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God. ~ Graham Greene
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream in the dark recesses of the night awake in the day to find all was vanity. But the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, and make it possible. ~ T.E. Lawrence
Life does not proceed by the association and addition of elements, but by dissociation and division. ~ Henri Berg
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. ~ Machiavelli
Where all is but dream, reasoning and arguments are of no use, truth and knowledge nothing. ~ John Locke
If ever there is a tomorrow when we're not together, there is something you must remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.
Tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. ~ Aeschylus
You must study the endgame before everything else. ~ Grandmaster José Raúl Capablanca
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Our affections as well as our bodies are in perpetual flux. ~ Rousseau
A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Who asks whether the enemy was defeated by strategy or valor? ~ Virgil
Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a deity, more humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals. ~ Darwin
If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal. ~ Sagan
The meaningless absurdity of life is the only incontestable knowledge accessible to man. ~ Tolstoy
Ah! yes, I know: those who see me rarely trust my word: I must look too intelligent to keep it. ~ Sartre
Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance. ~ Sartre
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. ~ Darwin
I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them. ~ Spinoza
So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge. ~ Cicero
Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being. ~ Rousseau
Death is not the worst that can happen to men. ~ Plato
Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war. ~ Seneca
It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved. ~ Machiavelli
Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Keep typing until it turns into writing. ~ David Carr
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. ~ Aristotle
For the apparel oft proclaims the man. ~ Shakespeare
When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff. ~ Cicero
The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property. ~ Karl Marx
The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action. ~ Confucius
When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people. ~ Seneca
He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it. ~ Plato
The universe is rarely so lazy.
We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. ~ King
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. ~ Wittgenstein
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. ~ Nietzsche
Those who excel in virtue have the best right of all to rebel, but then they are of all men the least inclined to do so. ~ Aristotle
The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going. ~ Epictetus
So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge. ~ Cicero
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. ~ Eisenhower
He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power. ~ Plato
When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun. ~ Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet", Act III, Scene II
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. ~ Epictetus
I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all. ~ Nietzsche
Ambition is a not a vice of little people. ~ Michael de Montaigne
Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it. ~ Joseph Clark
A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion. ~ Wittgenstein
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. ~ Seneca
The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it. ~ Nietzsche
That is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful. ~ Hemingway
Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. ~ Socrates
If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on. ~ Kant
Hatred is an affair of the heart; contempt that of the head. ~ Schopenhauer
I believe it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him. Admittedly, one man by himself cannot do the job. However, one man can make a difference... We must live for the future of the human race, and not for our own comfort or success. ~ U.S. Admiral Rickover
Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. ~ Marcus Aurelius
My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail. ~ Musk
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. ~ Joseph Campbell
Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods. ~ Confucius
Happiness is unrepentant pleasure. ~ Socrates
Tell me a story of deep delight. ~ Robert Penn Warren
To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. ~ William James
The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching. ~ Aristotle
The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act. ~ Graham
Irreverent and informal both mean caring about what really matters instead of what you're supposed to. ~ Graham
In science, if you know what you are doing, you should not be doing it. In engineering, if you do not know what you are doing, you should not be doing it. Of course, you seldom, if ever, see either pure state. ~ Hamming
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. ~ Wodehouse
One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. ~ Seneca
If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat. ~ Sartre
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world. ~ Aristotle
Enjoy yourself -- it's later than you think. ~ Socrates
Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner. ... I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner. ~ Plato in "The Allegory of the Cave", referencing Homer
I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong. ~ Frederick Douglass
A "no" uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a "yes" uttered merely to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. ~ Gandhi
In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head. ~ Schopenhauer
Beauty is a construct based entirely on childhood impressions, influences and role models.
There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all. ~ Scalia
A confession has to be part of your new life. ~ Wittgenstein
In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time. None. Zero. ~ Charlie Munger
Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor. ~ Hanh Nhat Thich
The danger of having a 10 year plan is that you actually accomplish it and realize the world shifted under your feet. ~ Ben Thompson
We so often wait, without knowing why, when or where. ~ Musk
Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought. ~ Hamilton
The art of reading is to skip judiciously.
Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect. ~ Teller
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. ~ Churchill
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. ~ Churchill
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. ~ Churchill
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. ~ Churchill
Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it. ~ Churchill
Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. ~ Churchill
I am not smarter than anybody else, but I can outwork you. ~ Michael Bloomberg
If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next. ~ SJ
Be very, very careful when you put a number next to someone's name. Because people will do whatever it takes to make that number go up. ~ Jeff Atwood
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke
It is better to suffer in dignity than to accept segregation in humiliation. ~ King
The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. ~ King
Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. ~ King
So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau: "Improved means to an unimproved end". This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of man's nature subjugates the "within", dark storm clouds begin to form in the world. ~ King
Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends. ~ Epicurus
It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us. ~ Epicurus
Subservience of any kind is death to the spirit. ~ Alice Walker
He uses statistics as a drunken man uses a lamp-post - for support rather than illumination. ~ Andrew Lang
Go high when they go low. ~ Michelle Obama
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. ~ Lincoln
(When in the midst of severe depression, he said he was more than willing to die but that he had) done nothing to make any human being remember that he had lived. ~ Lincoln
Ask for what you want. (Quit job to join you, enterprise deal.) ~ Altman
Each crisis gets less scary than the one before. ~ Altman
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. ~ Einstein
We are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it.... Life is long if you know how to use it. ~ Seneca
If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away. The more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to say, “Bye. I have to go. I’m going crazy and I’m getting out of here.” And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently. ~ SJ
A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably. ~ William Penn
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster.
Controlled usage is not usually fatal, and abstinence is not immortality.
I make sure every year is a hard year. If it’s easy, I’m not pushing hard enough. ~ Kalanick
Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. ~ Kalanick
The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always. ~ Arthur Miller
If you’re suffering from Depression, Anxiety or ADHD, find empowerment by reframing it as Malaise, Worry/Stress, Inattention.
Venenum in auro bibitur (Poison is drunk from a gold cup) ~ Seneca (in "Thyestes")
It's only hubris if I fail. ~ Gaius Julis Caesar
You will give the people an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.
You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good. Pledge yourself to neither side, but vow instead to preserve the balance that exists between the two. ~ Miyazaki
You don't attract what you want, you attract what you are.
It is pure arrogance to believe you can outsmart other talented people. ~ Rabois
I obsess about getting 8 hours of sleep. ~ Rabois
The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is: I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be outworked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things. You got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: You're getting off first, or I'm going to die. It's really that simple. ~ Will Smith
You're not going to outwork me. It's such a simple, basic concept. The guy who is willing to hustle the most is going to be the guy that just gets that loose ball. The majority of people who aren't getting the places they want or aren't achieving the things that they want in this business is strictly based on hustle. It's strictly based on being outworked; it's strictly based on missing crucial opportunities. I say all the time if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready. ~ Will Smith
Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you. ~ Walt Whitman
Ironically, jobs are actually easier to enjoy than free time, because like flow activities they have built-in goals, feedback rules, and challenges, all of which encourage one to become involved in one's work, to concentrate and lose oneself in it. Free time, on the other hand, is unstructured, and requires much greater effort to be shaped into something that can be enjoyed. ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, "Flow".
For man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite. ~ Tolstoy, "A Confession"
Psychosis is just neurosis pushed to its extreme. ~ Ernest Becker
If you believe, and you're willing to step out of your comfort zone, life will begin at the edge of your comfort zone. ~ Jason Silva
Treat what seems like despair, what seems like hardship, as an opportunity to reinvent yourself and to transcend your own limitations. ~ Jason Silva
If someone's insults' bother you; it is evidence that you respect him. ~ Taleb
People who are brutally honest generally enjoy the brutality more than the honesty.
Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.
Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war. ~ MLK
Outrage serves dogma.
Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. As soon as you start questioning the integrity of someone close to you, that is not without basis. ~ Max Levchin
When you say 'yes' to others, make sure you are not saying 'no' to yourself. ~ Paulo Coelho
Courage is the only virtue you can't fake. ~ Taleb
I would rather offend you with the truth than please you with flattery. ~ Seneca
If you're not a hell yes, then you're a no. ~ Airbnb hiring credo
In order to win a man to your cause, you must first reach his heart, the great high road to his reason. ~ Lincoln
If you have to ask, you’ll never know. If you know, you need only ask. ~ J.K. Rowling
Let it be a blessing rather than a curse.
Our ego only exist in the imaginary space between how things are and how we desire them to be.
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they cannot tell good from evil. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud.
If you need inspiring words, don't do it. ~ Elon Musk
The people who get outraged are the most anachronistic, least intelligent members of society, and I'm happy to leave them behind. The more easily outraged you are, the less I want to have to do with you. Be gone. If you think words hurt you, you're going to live in a world of misery and pain your entire life. ~ Naval Ravinkant
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Life narratives are very important. The first topic your thoughts drift to when alone is your identity, so defining that right matters. ~ Saku Panditharatne
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful. ~ Freud
The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures. Some men are masters of cities, but are enslaved to women. ~ Democritus
What you resist not only persists but will grow in size.
Take ownership; take extreme ownership. Don't make excuses, don't blame any other person or any other thing. Get control of your ego. Don't hide your delicate pride from the truth. Take ownership of everything in your world, the good and the bad. Take ownership of your mistakes, take ownership of your shortfalls, take ownership of your problems, and then take ownership of the solutions that will get those problems solved. Take ownership of your mission. Take ownership of your job, of your team, of your future, and take ownership of your life. And lead. Lead. Lead yourself, and your team, and the people in your life; lead them all to victory. ~ Jocko Willink
Comfort kills.
Definition of an unknown unknown is a thing which exists but which you do not know about, and which you cannot even imagine.
Stress primarily comes from not taking action over something that you can have some control over. Stress comes from ignoring things that you shouldn’t be ignoring. ~ Bezos
Copying others is a good way to start. Copying yourself is a disappointing way to end. ~ Kevin Kelley
Prescription for popular success: do something strange. Make a habit of your weird. ~ Kevin Kelley
When introduced to someone make eye contact and count to 4. You’ll both remember each other. ~ Kevin Kelley
Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Don’t focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout. ~ Kevin Kelley