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