Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; It is because there is an infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.
~ Thomas Carlyle
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Quotes
A long long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms which became my collection of quotes.
Silence
The silence that is in the starry sky.
~ William Wordsworth
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Excellence
What I understand today is that when the Stoics said that there was an opportunity in every obstacle, what they meant was the opportunity to practice virtue. To be a good person despite the bad things that have happened. To do good in the world despite the bad that has befallen you. They were speaking of the idea of arete. Excellence—in all forms.
~ Ryan Holiday
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A repelling force
Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.
~ Steven Pressfield
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Solitude
Solitude is more a state of mind and heart than it is a place. There is a solitude of the heart that can be maintained at all times. Crowds, or the lack of them, have little to do with this inward attentiveness.
~ Richard Foster
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Job versus vocation
There is a huge difference between a job and vocation. A job is what we hold to earn money to meet economic demands. A vocation (from Latin vocatus, calling) is what we are called to do with our life’s energy. It is a requisite part of our individuation to feel that we are productive, and not responding to one’s calling can damage the soul.
~ James Hollis
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Lectures
The muses were dumb while Apollo lectured.
~ Charles Lamb
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The quiet ones
Of the ones who have nothing to say, the quiet ones are the most pleasant.
~ Michel ‘Coluche’ Colucci
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Sit down
There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is resistance.
~ Steven Pressfield
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Somewhat higher
The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.
~ Thomas Henry Huxley
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Obstacles
We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.
~ Robert Brault
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Leadership
Freedom, by definition, is people realizing that they are their own leaders.
~ Diane Nash
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The best you can
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
~ Maya Angelou
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Living the dream
Most of us are “living the dream”—living, that is, the dream we once had for ourselves. We might be married to the person we once dreamed of marrying, have the children and job we once dreamed of having, and own the car we once dreamed of buying. But thanks to hedonic adaptation, as soon as we find ourselves living the life of our dreams, we start taking that life for granted. Instead of spending our days enjoying our good fortune, we spend them forming and pursuing new, grander dreams for ourselves.
~ William B. Irvine
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Overcoming Resistance
How many pages have I produced? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got. All that counts is that, for this day, for this session, I have overcome Resistance.
~ Steven Pressfield
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Intention is action
Your intention should be something that really lights you up. You need to feel it in your chest, in your gut. It is the verb that connects you to your audience, the umbilical cord that takes your energy to them and brings theirs back to you. Intention is action.
~ Angie Flynn-McIver
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The future
Science fiction has the capacity to inspire by setting the vision of a radically better future, and by making it clear that the future won’t happen unless we put in the work.
~ Dan Wang
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Reading
There will be no war and there will be no greed and all of the children will know how to read.
~ Gene Roddenberry
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Peculiar thinking
Every man has some peculiar train of thought which he falls back upon when he is alone. This, to a great degree, molds the man.
~ Dugald Stewart
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Wisdom versus talking
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.
~ Doug Larson
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