quotes

We can get more ambitious about what we unshackle ourselves from ‘Retirement’ is the word we should learn to use to explain quitting a host of activities otherwise deemed crucial without forfeiting our claim to be July 20, 2025 Not by denying life was life lived The match lived, not when it lay in the box, but merely when it burned—and it could not burn forever. So too with men and women. Not by denying life July 9, 2025 Persistency of purpose is a power It creates confidence in others. Everybody believes in the determined woman. When she undertakes anything her June 13, 2025 You have to be a light to yourself When you begin to see that which is false, then there is the beginning of awareness, of intelligence. You have to be a light to yourself and it is June 13, 2025 I'll meet you there Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. — Rumi June 13, 2025 The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. — June 13, 2025 The future needs us to cultivate more than logic The future, however, is not constrained by rules and predictable outcomes. We need to cultivate more than logic if we want to thrive in it. We must June 12, 2025 The inevitable result of what we do today The future is not an escapist place to occupy. All of it is the inevitable result of what we do today, and the more we take it in our hands, imagine June 12, 2025 The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or June 12, 2025 The necessary and inevitable work of the day The first consideration should be: Is it so planned that the necessary and inevitable work of the day can be accomplished with the least expenditure June 12, 2025 Cultivation will breed in any man a certainty of the uncertainty It is only those who are ignorant and uncultivated who can know anything at all in a proper sense of the words. Cultivation will breed in any man a June 12, 2025 When an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when the individual May 29, 2025 Everything worth doing depends on cooperating with others It’s scary to confront the truth that almost everything worth doing… depends on cooperating with others, and therefore on exposing yourself to the May 29, 2025 Each person is involved in becoming that thing that his subconscious mind wills him to be. — U.S. Andersen May 29, 2025 I will continue to write under my own domain We’ve known the incentives and motivations of centi-billionaire media owners for some time. It’s just now they’ve openly declared that they aren’t May 28, 2025 To the bottom of the pit and out again I have been to the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the pit. And I’ve mapped every millimeter on the way down and on the way out. Having gone May 14, 2025 Your work is to discover the world and then with all your heart give yourself to it. — St. Augustine May 6, 2025 The work of the writer is to reclaim the language “Many see that in this nightmared land, language has no meaning and the work of the writer is ruined. Many see that the triumph of authoritarian April 14, 2025 Attention is the beginning of devotion To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest March 13, 2025 Having precise vocabulary helps you understand the situation [!quote] However, when I think about the best advice I’ve received over the years and I found one common pattern. Good advice improves your March 12, 2025 Critical thinking requires updating our knowledge Critical thinking is not something you do once with an issue and then drop it. It requires that we update our knowledge as new information comes in. March 10, 2025 Our scale of revulsion is off If we’re freaking out when someone takes a knee during the anthem and shrugging our shoulders when a 6-year-old takes a bullet, our scale of February 23, 2025 Once you know what you want I’d also advise that once you know what you want and have fallen in love with something, buy it immediately as you may not come across a particular February 23, 2025 Efficiency is impossible unless …efficiency is impossible unless one is set a certain task to accomplish. — William Chandler Bagley February 23, 2025 And of this nature Happiness is mostly thought to be for this we choose always for its own sake, and never with a view to anything further: whereas February 23, 2025 Being kind takes energy It’s crucial that I say no, especially when I really want to say no. If I end up doing something that I don’t want to do I’ll end up being February 23, 2025 One of our most important tasks as parents is to help our children learn to recognize and understand their emotions. Most kids don’t like being February 23, 2025 Success requires learning from your mistakes … success comes down to learning from one’s prior mistakes—for instance, continuing to improve the parts of an invention that aren’t working rather February 23, 2025 Allowing others to determine our actions Your life is determined by your actions, but so often we allow others to determine our actions by paying attention to what they say, and believing February 23, 2025 More than this time last week Just know that you are wiser, more effective and more helpful than this time last week. All else will follow. — Nicholas Bate February 23, 2025 Scribble outside every damn box you can get hold of. — Nicholas Bate February 23, 2025 Tip the scales in favor of creation over consumption And so we default to consumption rather than creation. Do what is necessary to tip the scales in favor of creation over consumption. It is not easy February 23, 2025 Mainstream media can rapidly reframe reality Currently reading: If We Burn by Vincent Bevins 📚 “…they very quickly learned that mainstream journalism, embedded within a certain ideological February 13, 2025 We cannot wish away the constraints While striving to change the course of history we cannot wish away the constraints that the past has burdened us with; to do so would lead only to January 12, 2025 Lack of vocabulary traps you in the originating context Watching the Keep Sweet documentary: [!quote] “I didn’t know what was happening to me. I couldn’t identify ‘rape’ or ‘assault.’ I didn’t even have December 23, 2024 To live in absolute freedom is neither possible nor …to live in absolute freedom is neither possible nor desirable. Without rules based on past experience it is easy to make costly mistakes; without a December 20, 2024 We are what happens when “We are what happens when the seemingly unthinkable celebrity rises to power.” — Lidia Yuknavitch Source: Yuknavitch, Lidia - The Book of Joan December 14, 2024 To die is different from what any one supposed All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier. ― Walt Whitman November 5, 2024 No feeling is final I’ve had to learn that no feeling is final. Not happiness, not sorrow, not anger, not grief, not boredom. That resilience is preferable to safety September 5, 2024 Hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us Nick Cave, quoted here: “Much of my early life was spent holding the world and the people in it in contempt. It was a position both seductive and August 18, 2024 Women talking is one key to ending capitalism Capitalism needed to disparage women’s talk in order to bring itself about because women’s talk—that is, talk that is liberatory, reciprocal, and June 7, 2024 My life seemed composed entirely of expectation I hated waiting. If I had one particular complaint, it was that my life seemed composed entirely of expectation. I expected–an arrival, an May 15, 2024 Knowing is a great strength and also a form of pleasure. — Annie Ernaux, Getting Lost May 14, 2024 I offer you an honorable new beginning “I offer you an honorable new beginning. I do not guarantee its ending. Attempts fail, but not as certainly as tasks never attempted.” — Lois May 12, 2024 You might be filtering out the advice you need most Read this quote in James Clear’s latest newsletter: “Selfish people should listen to advice to be more selfless, selfless people should listen to April 26, 2024 Time is a machine that converts your pain into experience Time is a machine: it will convert your pain into experience. Raw data will be compiled, will be translated into a more comprehensible language. The March 13, 2024 The only solid partitions left were inside the head. — Ursula K. Le Guin Source: The Lathe of Heaven February 25, 2024 Bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are …it is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. The bullshitter ignores February 22, 2024 Leverage a shift in the system by How I am In a fractal conception, I am a cell-sized unit of a human organism, and I have to use my life to leverage a shift in the system by How I am,, as November 27, 2023 It's always the same Like he said, it’s always the same—they start out burning books and end up burning people. —Terry Hayes, I Am Pilgrim Sub “banning” for October 18, 2023 Social media can trigger us into a fixed mindset. Social media forces you to compare yourself to others, forces you to seek as many likes as possible. Whatever you put out there, you’re on the line. October 5, 2023 Love knows no shame To be loving is to be open to grief, to be touched by sorrow, even sorrow that is unending. The way we grieve is informed by September 3, 2023 Definitions are vital starting points for the imagination What we cannot imagine cannot come into being. A good definition marks our starting point September 3, 2023 A tough lesson Importantly, like many other women and men (irrespective of sexual preference) who are in relationships where they are the objects of intimate September 3, 2023 You own everything that happened to you Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better. — August 17, 2023 Fear is the primary force upholding structures of domination It promotes the desire for separation, the desire not to be known. When we are taught August 8, 2023 Feeling safe is not necessarily being safe [!QUOTE] If a strategy to be safe is nothing more than what makes us feel safer, the strategy is probably flawed. For example, fearful fliers feel June 6, 2023 Fail at least 15% of the time (I have that covered) On the other hand, removing all risks from children’s lives does not leave them feeling safe. Childhood exposure to mild risks fortifies children. June 6, 2023 Failure is defragilising [!QUOTE] On the other hand, removing all risks from children’s lives does not leave them feeling safe. Childhood exposure to mild risks fortifies June 6, 2023 Focus on what is said and what results Focus on what is said when you speak and what results from each action. Know what the one aims at, and what the other means. — Marcus Aurelius, February 9, 2023 When we take responsibility When we place blame, we locate the cause and control of our lives outside ourselves. When we take responsibility, we locate the cause and control of January 30, 2023 Being part of a group helps you change [!quote] The evidence is clear: If you want to change a habit, you must find an alternative routine, and your odds of success go up dramatically December 28, 2022 Peaces comes when love and mutual respect are present Peace does not come through the agreement of egos, for it is impossible for egos to agree. Peace comes when love and mutual respect are present. December 18, 2022 Weave with imagination and vision The way we represent the world arises, though, from our whole social fabric, as Bruner put it. There is no escaping this rich web of language, myth, December 13, 2022 What is human deserves our affection What is divine deserves our respect because it is good; what is human deserves our affection because it is like us. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations December 2, 2022 Learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference Book 10, 37: Learn to ask of all actions, ‘Why are you doing that?’ Starting with your own. — Marcus Aurelius Book 11, 16: To live a good life: December 1, 2022 Commitment to the process will determine your progress “The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is November 26, 2022 Update our knowledge as new information comes in Critical thinking is not something you do once with an issue and then drop it. It requires that we update our knowledge as new information comes in. November 23, 2022 What makes our culture multidimensional and interesting The only way to grab the attention of the audience is originality. We feed ourselves with franchises that’s the opposite of what makes our culture November 17, 2022 The fool tries to adjust the truth When truth presents itself, the wise person see the light, takes it in, and makes adjustments. The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not November 14, 2022 Certain like the sea “I want to learn to go on well with whatever I have in my hands at the moment in a natural state of mind, certain like the sea.” — Charlotte November 9, 2022 We cannot pander or wait for consensus ; the world is too big and complicated and rigged. We are saying the things that people don’t like. ― Lindy November 8, 2022 Specialization is for insects 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, October 27, 2022 Let the beauty we love be what we do There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. — Rumi June 13, 2022 Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. — William Morris ⮕ Let no act be done without a purpose April 26, 2021 Engineering daily activities to get the most rewarding experiences from them The first step in improving the quality of life consists in engineering daily activities so that one gets the most rewarding experiences from them. March 9, 2021 If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, I’m not interested in or open to your feedback. There are a million cheap seats in January 20, 2020 If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s January 11, 2020 We are actually feeling creatures that think “Most of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, but we are actually feeling creatures that think.” ― Jill Bolte Taylor January 10, 2020 Do the things you love Get good at giving yourself permission to do the things you love. — James Altucher February 23, 2017 Let no act be done without a purpose nor otherwise than according to the perfect principles of art. — Marcus Aurelius ⮕ Have nothing in your house May 27, 2016 Be content to seem foolish If thou wouldst make progress, be content to seem foolish and void of understanding with respect to outward things. Care not to be thought to know March 24, 2013 There is nothing more tractable than the human soul For know that there is nothing more tractable than the human soul. It needs but to will, and the thing is done; the soul is set upon the right March 24, 2013 It is no easy thing for a principle to become your own You must know that it is no easy thing for a principle to become a man’s own, unless each day he maintain it and hear it maintained, as well as work March 24, 2013