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“The key is to keep asking yourself the same question, again and again and again: this is your life—what do you want to pay attention to?” — in Susan Cain’s Quiet Journal
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“I made my money by selling too soon.” ― , prominent American financier and statesman who, after amassing a fortune on Wall Street, served as a key advisor to U.S. presidents on economic and industrial mobilization during both World Wars
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“When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.” — . Henri J. M. Nouwen (Related: see a clever inversion of the quote here.)
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“It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.” —
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“There are times when the world is rearranging itself, and at times like that, the right words can change the world.” ― , Ender’s Game
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“Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.” — . Jesse Jackson
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“Most letters from a parent contain a parent’s own lost dreams disguised as good advice. My good advice to you is to pay somebody to teach you to speak some foreign language, to meet with you two or three times a week and talk. Also: get somebody to teach you to play a musical instrument. What makes this advice especially hollow and pious is that I am not dead yet. If it were any good, I could easily take it myself.” — , Nanette, 20th September 1972 via Letters of Note
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“I never sat on the bench and said, ‘Well, I learned a lot today.’” — “Coach Prime” Sanders, American football coach and former pro football and baseball player
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“The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one.’” —
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Via negativa: improving by removing. This principle is widely applied in the “Elimination” section of The 4-Hour Workweek, which is effectively 25% of the book. Here’s the basic heuristic, courtesy of Nassim Taleb: “In action, it is a recipe for what to avoid, what not to do—subtraction, not addition.” (Worthwhile short read: “Via Negativa: The Process of Making Good Decisions By Eliminating Bad Ones.”)
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“Psychedelic experiences are usually not about visiting some transcendent realm of angels and demons (though that does happen); more often than not, they are about experiencing the here and now in a very intense way.” — , The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss (Click here to share on X) You can complement this edition of 5-Bullet Friday with my brand-new interview with Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg on cutting-edge science for eye health, red light therapy, and the future of eyesight restoration. And, as always, please give me feedback on X. Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you
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“Many native traditions held clowns and tricksters as essential to any contact with the sacred. People could not pray until they had laughed, because laughter opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within the most sacred ceremonies for fear that they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth.” ―
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“If a large diamond is cut up into pieces, it immediately loses its value as a whole; or if an army is scattered or divided into small bodies, it loses all its power; and in the same way a great intellect has no more power than an ordinary one as soon as it is interrupted, disturbed, distracted, or diverted.” —
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“Coming or going, Day or night, You must just strive to Face the incomprehensible.” — (1283–1338)
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“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” —
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“A problem never exists in isolation; it is surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of the context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of finding a truly adequate solution.” — , “The Development of Operations Research as a Science”
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“Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.” —
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“Many clients of mine come to me with a genuine and deep desire to let go but often have no idea how to go about it, as their ‘letting go muscle’ is completely atrophied. Often all that is needed is simply for the person to give himself or herself permission to let go.” —
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“The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.” — , This is Water
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“I was disappointed in myself for not being tough enough to take the flak, disappointed and ashamed. But as pilgrims must discover if they are to complete their quest, we are led to truth by our weaknesses as well as our strengths.” — Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer
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“You’re never so centered on yourself as when you’re depressed. You’re never so ready to forget yourself as when you are happy. Happiness releases you from self. It is suffering and pain and misery and depression that tie you to the self. Look how conscious you are of your tooth when you have a toothache. When you don’t have a toothache, you’re not even aware you have a tooth, or that you have a head, for that matter, when you don’t have a headache.” —
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“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” — (American writer, director, and producer) “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” — Sydney J. Harris (Chicago Sun-Times columnist)
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“When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine p.m. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.” —
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“The future will be better than you expect it to be. It always has been. You would not have been here if your present matched your past fears, would you?” —
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“One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. ... Don’t stop to marvel.” —
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“Do you want to be right or happy? You can’t be both.” —
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“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.” ― , The One Thing You Need to Know: ...About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success
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“It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratefulness that makes us happy.” —
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“You come to understand that most people are neither for you nor against you, they are thinking about themselves. You learn that no matter how hard you try to please, some people in this world are not going to love you, a lesson that is at first troubling and then really quite relaxing.” —
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“If you never change your mind, why have one?” ― , author of Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking Hats
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Bushnell’s Law. Synopsis: “All the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master. They should reward the first quarter and the hundredth.”
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“My new mantra.”
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“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. One of the universe’s strategies is to put directly before you the things you are trying to avoid. It is possible to grow and learn in a way that is loving to yourself and others. All you do is make a commitment that you want it that way. We have had many of our clients phrase it this way: ‘I’m willing to see and handle anything I need to be free, and I would like my lessons in a friendly, loving way for me and others around me.’” —
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“If you’re feeling creative, do the errands tomorrow. If you’re fit and healthy, take a day to go surfing. When inspiration strikes, write it down. The calendar belongs to everyone else. Their schedule isn’t your schedule unless it helps you get where you’re going.” —
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“Breath is not only an invitation into the body but the essence of the way we already know how to live in that body. Easy, relaxed, breathing always leads to surprise: at how centred we already are, how unhurried we are underneath it all, how patient we never knew we could be.” … “Breath is practical and helpful in understanding how we should be in life: the unquenchable source of both visible and invisible help in our days, giving when we do not ask, teaching us, with each in-breath, how to receive when we feel we do not deserve to receive.” — David Whyte, Consolations II You can complement t
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“The New Age author Julia Rogers Hamrick once wrote a book, Choosing Easy World, in which she argues it’s as simple as repeating a mantra: ‘I choose to live in Easy World, where everything is easy.’ When some daunting challenge barrels into view, just decide that you’re going to experience it as easy instead.” — , Meditations for Mortals (Hat tip to Ali Abdaal.)
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“When I was starting out, I used to sit down and write a couple times a week. And then, one day, I was watching these construction workers go back to work. I was watching them kind of trudgin’ down the street... It was like a revelation to me, and I realized, ‘These guys don’t want to go back to work after lunch, but they’re goin’... ’cause that’s their job!’ And I thought, ‘If they can exhibit that level of dedication for that job, I should be able to do the same.’ Just trudge your ass in!” — in Comedian )
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“Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.” —
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“An old friend of mine, a journalist, once said that paradise on earth was to work all day alone in anticipation of an evening in interesting company.” ― , from his novel Machines Like Me
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“If we really dropped illusions for what they can give us or deprive us of, we would be alert. The consequence of not doing this is terrifying and unescapable. We lose our capacity to love. If you wish to love, you must learn to see again.” —
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“When life gets tough, some of us feel that we’ve lost the game and life has won. But life isn’t trying to defeat you. Life isn’t even a participant—the game is yours.” — in Solve for Happy
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“Change. But start slowly, because direction is more important than speed.” — , author of The Alchemist
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“We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.” ― , Breakfast of Champions
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“But no matter the medicinal virtues of being a true friend or sustaining a long close relationship with another, the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.” ― , Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and U
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“When it comes to filmmaking, money isn’t important. The intensity of your wishes and faith alone are the deciding factors.” — (Grizzly Man and more) to Errol Morris (Fog of War and more)
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Solvitur ambulando. From Wikipedia: “Solvitur ambulando is a Latin phrase which means ‘it is solved by walking,’ referring to an anecdotal, practical solution to a seemingly complex philosophical problem. It is often attributed to Saint Augustine in a refutation of Zeno’s paradoxes of motion.”
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“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” ― , often attributed to Margaret Thatcher
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“Fall in love with yourself, with life, and then with whomever you want.” —
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“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by . One of the all-time greats.
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“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” — , British science-fiction author and co-writer with Stanley Kubrick of the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey
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Festina lente. Festina lente or speûde bradéōs (σπεῦδε βραδέως) is a classical adage and oxymoron meaning “make haste slowly.” It has been adopted as a motto numerous times, particularly by the emperors Augustus and Titus, then later by the Medicis and the Onslows. (Wikipedia)
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“The secret is comprised in three words — Work, Finish, Publish.” — , one of history’s most influential scientists, offering advice to the young William Crookes, who had asked him the secret of his success as a scientific investigator
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“Jeder ist seines Glückes Schmied.” This German expression means “Everyone is the smith of their own luck.”
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Coach Christopher Sommer’s email to me. Coach Sommer is a former US National Team gymnastics coach and the creator of Gymnastic Bodies. Below is one part of his email that continues to resonate deeply and serves as a great reminder on a lot of levels: In fact, this impatience in dealing with frustration is the primary reason that most people fail to achieve their goals. Unreasonable expectations timewise, resulting in unnecessary frustration, due to a perceived feeling of failure. Achieving the extraordinary is not a linear process. The secret is to show up, do the work, and go home. A blue co
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“The perfectionist is never satisfied. The perfectionist never says, ‘This is pretty good. I think I’ll just keep going.’ To the perfectionist, there is always room for improvement. The perfectionist calls this humility. In reality, it is egotism. It is pride that makes us want to write a perfect script, paint a perfect painting, perform a perfect audition monologue. Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough—that we should try again. No. We should not.” — (Click here to
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“The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.” —
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Below are just a few of the 100+ highlights I’ve made in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Far from being depressing, I find a lot of Kundera’s insights incredibly liberating if you look at them closely enough. For instance, in the case of the second quote, I don’t take it to mean we’re all doomed to sadness. I take it to mean that the endless pursuit of happiness is almost doomed to backfire, but that, per a quote often attributed to Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon y
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“It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time. Give yourself permission to be a beginner.” — , The Artist’s Way
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“If you forget your feelings about things of the world, they become enlightening teachings. If you get emotional about enlightening teaching, it becomes a worldly thing.” —
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“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” — . Nicknamed “the Wizard of Westwood,” he won ten NCAA championships over a 12-year period as head coach for the UCLA Bruins, including a record seven in a row.