Site uses cookies to provide basic functionality.

OK
Query
Tags
Author
Link Quote Stars Tags Author
b154911 Reminding ourselves each day that we will die helps us treat our time as a gift. Ryan Holiday
561644b When I see an anxious person, I ask myself, what do they want? For if a person wasn't wanting something outside of their own control, why would they be stricken by anxiety?" --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES," Ryan Holiday
9bcf830 to be a philosopher in all that you do, and if you wish also to be seen as one, show yourself first that you are and you will succeed. Ryan Holiday
08d2fad First off, don't let the force of the impression carry you away. Say to it, 'hold up a bit and let me see who you are and where you are from--let me put you to the test' ..." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.18.24" Ryan Holiday
90ff080 Napoleon had the words "To Destiny!" engraved on the wedding ring he gave his wife. Destiny was what he'd always believed in, it was how he justified his boldest, most ambitious ideas." Ryan Holiday
4193e9d Let's be clear: competitiveness is an important force in life. It's what drives the market and is behind some of mankind's most impressive accomplishments. On an individual level, however, it's absolutely critical that you know who you're competing with and why, that you have a clear sense of the space you're in. Ryan Holiday
7ec02b2 Only you know the race you're running. Ryan Holiday
50af308 The current media environment both encourages and perpetuates these reactions because after all it's good for business. The writer and media commenter Ryan Holiday refers to this as "outrage porn": rather than report on real stories and real issues, the media find it much easier (and more profitable) to find something mildly offensive, broadcast it to a wide audience, generate outrage, and then broadcast that outrage back across the populat.. Mark Manson
3e4dca5 Our soul is sometimes a king, and sometimes a tyrant. A king, by attending to what is honorable, protects the good health of the body in its care, and gives it no base or sordid command. But an uncontrolled, desire-fueled, over-indulged soul is turned from a king into that most feared and detested thing--a tyrant." --SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 114.24" consort west-march Ryan Holiday
8b420da As the Haitian proverb puts it: Behind mountains are more mountains. Elysium is a myth. One does not overcome an obstacle to enter the land of no obstacles. On the contrary, the more you accomplish, the more things will stand in your way. There are always more obstacles, bigger challenges. You're always fighting uphill. Get used to it and train accordingly. Knowing that life is a marathon and not a sprint is important. Conserve your energy... Ryan Holiday
11e0daa If we ever do want to become wise, it comes from the questioning and from humility--not, as many would like to think, from certainty, mistrust, and arrogance. Ryan Holiday
8ca30be Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush wasn't from outside me but in my own assumptions." --MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS," Ryan Holiday
c5634b9 Keep constant guard over your perceptions, for it is no small thing you are protecting, but your respect, trustworthiness and steadiness, peace of mind, freedom from pain and fear, in a word your freedom. For what would you sell these things?" --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.3.6b-8" Ryan Holiday
68cb9ee A mind that isn't in control of itself, that doesn't understand its power to regulate itself, will be jerked around by external events and unquestioned impulses. Ryan Holiday
da0470e Cut flowers can outlast movies that people have poured millions into. Ryan Holiday
d8298be The things you love too much perish"--After Shostakovich and Volkov, p. 78. The composer goes on: "You have to treat everything with irony, especially the things you hold dear." William T. Vollmann
8bec649 All this is the flimsiest speculation, which is God's gift to historical fictioneers. William T. Vollmann
403f1b8 Life without a design is erratic. As soon as one is in place, principles become necessary. I think you'll concede that nothing is more shameful than uncertain and wavering conduct, and beating a cowardly retreat. This will happen in all our affairs unless we remove the faults that seize and detain our spirits, preventing them from pushing forward and making an all-out effort." --SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 95.46" Ryan Holiday
43f737d If you should ever turn your will to things outside your control in order to impress someone, be sure that you have wrecked your whole purpose in life. Be content, then, to be a philosopher in all that you do, and if you wish also to be seen as one, show yourself first that you are and you will succeed." --EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 23" Ryan Holiday
7c444e1 Remember that it's not only the desire for wealth and position that debases and subjugates us, but also the desire for peace, leisure, travel, and learning. It doesn't matter what the external thing is, the value we place on it subjugates us to another . . . where our heart is set, there our impediment lies. Ryan Holiday
4877744 You will be unappreciated. You will be sabotaged. You will experience surprising failures. Your expectations will not be met. You will lose. You will fail. How do you carry on then? How do you take pride in yourself and your work? John Wooden's advice to his players says it: Change the definition of success. "Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the .. Ryan Holiday
2c7071e We're all full of anxieties, doubts, impotence, pains, and sometimes a little tinge of crazy. Ryan Holiday
2f2b775 Receive feedback, maintain hunger, and chart a proper course in life. Ryan Holiday
7d78fbc I am going to be myself, the best version of that self. I am in this for the long game, no matter how brutal it might be. Ryan Holiday
2c9ca52 Ego is more than just off-putting and obnoxious. Instead, it's the sworn enemy of our ability to learn and grow. Ryan Holiday
0f5205e we're the only ones who can evaluate and set the terms of our lives. Far too often, we look at other people and make their approval the standard we feel compelled to meet, and as a result, squander our very potential and purpose. Ryan Holiday
6515b25 Find out why you're after what you're after. Ignore those who mess with your pace. Let them covet what you have, not the other way around. Because that's independence. Ryan Holiday
3b20f01 Yes, there are legitimate stresses and anguish that come with the responsibilities of your new life. All the things you're managing, the frustrating mistakes of people who should know better, the endless creep of obligations--no one prepares us for that, which makes the feelings all the harder to deal with. Ryan Holiday
0d04545 It is not enough to have great qualities; we should also have the management of them. --LA ROCHEFOUCAULD Ryan Holiday
f876e4e His job was to set the priorities, to think big picture, and then trust the people beneath him to do the jobs they were hired for. Ryan Holiday
e3b88b3 As you become successful in your own field, your responsibilities may begin to change. Days become less and less about doing and more and more about making decisions. Such is the nature of leadership. Ryan Holiday
3b2c38f Yes, we are small. We are also a piece of this great universe and a process. Ryan Holiday
bb70c20 Remind yourself how pointless it is to rage and fight and try to one-up those around you. Go and put yourself in touch with the infinite, and end your conscious separation from the world. Reconcile yourself a bit better with the realities of life. Realize how much came before you, and how only wisps of it remain. Ryan Holiday
dd69776 You thought it would get easier when you arrived; instead, it's even harder--a different animal entirely. What you found is that you must manage yourself in order to maintain your success. Ryan Holiday
f4a8574 Who knows--maybe a downturn is exactly what's coming next. Worse, maybe you caused it. Just because you did something once, doesn't mean you'll be able to do it successfully forever. Reversals and regressions are as much a part of the cycle of life as anything else. But we can manage that too. Ryan Holiday
ae5c1ae Almost without exception, this is what life does: it takes our plans and dashes them to pieces. Sometimes once, sometimes lots of times. Ryan Holiday
f051080 Yes, it would feel much better in the moment to be angry, to be aggrieved, to be depressed or heartbroken. When injustice or the capriciousness of fate are inflicted on someone, the normal reaction is to yell, to fight back, to resist. You know the feeling: I don't want this. I want ______. I want it my way. This is shortsighted. Ryan Holiday
5bc4fe1 Think of what you have been putting off. Issues you declined to deal with. Systemic problems that felt too overwhelming to address. Dead time is revived when we use it as an opportunity to do what we've long needed to do. Ryan Holiday
740c7e7 Most trouble is temporary . . . unless you make that not so. Recovery is not grand, it's one step in front of the other. Unless your cure is more of the disease. Ryan Holiday
9ab1921 Hate defers blame. It makes someone else responsible. Ryan Holiday
493f616 those T-34s? Better not to look! I see you shining, my beloved, chaotic, all-knowing, heartless Russia. Stalin's daughter Svetlana wrote that. William T. Vollmann
cbc3ab5 For we all must build our worlds around us, bravely or dreamily, as long as we can we shelter ourselves from the rain, walling ourselves in gorgeously. William T. Vollmann
16cb435 People seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, or in the mountains. You are very much in the habit of yearning for those same things. But this is entirely the trait of a base person, when you can, at any moment, find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy retreat than in your own soul--especially if on close inspection it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being.. Ryan Holiday
e7619aa freedom isn't secured by filling up on your heart's desire but by removing your desire." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.1.175" Ryan Holiday