Quotes

A long long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms which became my collection of quotes.

Our relationship with death →

Published July 23, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 23  ·  

We now live in a world where [our relationship with detah] is the complete opposite. We have to repress the very thought of it. We can’t see it anywhere. It’s put into hopitals where it’s sanitized, where it happens behind closed doors. Nobody ever talks about it. Nobody tells you this is probably the most important life skill that you could have—to know how to deal with that fear of mortality. Nobody teaches that. Your parents don’t talk about it. Your girlfriend or boyfriend—they don’t talk about it. Nobody. It’s a dirty little secret. But it’s the only reality we have. We’re all going to die.

~ Robert Greene

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Human existence →

Published July 22, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 22  ·  

Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.

~ Bertrand Russel

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Priorities →

Published July 21, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 21  ·  

Lack of time is lack of priorities. If I’m “busy,” it is because I’ve made choices that put me in that position, so I’ve forbidden myself to reply to, “how are you?” with “busy.” I have no right to complain. Instead, if I’m too busy, it’s a cue to reexamine my systems and rules.

~ Tim Ferriss

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Utterance is magic →

Published July 20, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 20  ·  ,

This is why utterance is magic. Words do have power. Names have power. Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it.

~ Ursula K. Le Guin

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Fair winds →

Published July 19, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 19  ·  , ,

Somehow these less-than-ideal conditions raised his game, spurred him on to greatness. There’s a definite lesson here. Fair winds do not a great captain make. We dream of finding our own greatness one day, but we want it to happen when the sun is shining.

~ Hugh Macleod

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Three dots →

Published July 18, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 18  ·  , , ,

Let me be clear that no part of me idealizes the bygone agony of waiting three weeks for a letter from your lover to cross the Atlantic—a letter that might never arrive from a lover who might be dead by the time it does arrive. But let me also be clear that, in another century or two, if humanity is wise enough to survive and reconsider its compulsions, posterity will look back on us gobsmacked that we put ourselves through the agony of the three pulsating dots.

~ Maria Popova

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Perspective →

Published July 17, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 17  ·  ,

Age. Age brings perspective in the fine clarity one gets at midnight, on the tracks, looking into the lights of an oncoming train. It dawns on you rather quickly: There’s only so much time left. Only so many star-filled nights, snowfalls… brisk fall afternoons, rainy midsummer days. So how you conduct yourself and do your work matters. How you treat your friends, your family, your lover. On good days, a blessing falls over you. It wraps its arms around you and you’re free and deeply in and of this world. That’s your reward: Being here.

~ Bruce Springsteen

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Busy →

Published July 16, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 16  ·  ,

Every time people contact me, they say, “look, I know you must be incredibly busy…” and I always think, “no, I’m not.” Because I’m in control of my time. I’m on top of it. “Busy,” to me, seems to imply, “out of control.” Like, “oh my god, I’m so busy. I don’t have any time for this shit!” To me, that sounds like a person who’s got no control over their life.”

~ Derek Sivers

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Discretion →

Published July 15, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 15  ·  ,

If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.

~ Richard Cecil

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A big ol’ distraction →

Published July 14, 2022  ·  All posts on Jul 14  ·  ,

Quit your yakkin’ and get busy. Quit wasting time obsessing about pimping your ass and checking your stats. Instead, MAKE stuff. Make AMAZING stuff. Make stuff that is so good that people have no choice but to find out about it. Otherwise, you REALLY are just wasting your time. This game is already TOO hard and TOO BIG a time suck to fritter away on what is, for the most part, a big ol’ distraction.

~ Hugh MacLeod

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