What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.
~ Wendell Phillips
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Inspirational Quotes book (selected)
See also Inspirational Quotes.
Defiance and acceptance
Defiance and acceptance come together well in the following principle: There is always a countermove, always an escape or a way through, so there is no reason to get worked up. No one said it would be easy and, of course, the stakes are high, but the path is there for those ready to take it. This is what we’ve got to do. And we know that it’s going to be tough, maybe even scary.
~ Ryan Holiday
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The real fear
These are serious fears. But they’re not the real fear. Not the Master Fear, the Mother of all Fears that’s so close to us that even when we verbalize it we don’t believe it. Fear That We Will Succeed. That we can access the powers we secretly know we possess. That we can become the person we sense in our hearts we truly are.
~ Steven Pressfield
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One’s voice
The fact is one’s own voice is not heard anywhere else. It’s a challenge to be yourself. It makes a lot of courage.
~ Yusef Lateef
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Luxury
Modern luxury is the ability to think clearly, sleep deeply, move slowly, and live quietly in a world designed to prevent all four.
~ Justin Welsh
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First priority
Make your own recovery the first priority in your life.
~ Robin Norwood
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Pursue your dreams
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
~ Henry David Thoreau
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The play instinct
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
~ Carl Jung
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Conduct of life
Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence—not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree; Not a ripple upon the surface of shining pool—his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life.
~ Charles Eastman
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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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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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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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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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Risk
I do not intend to take dangerous chances, both because I have no wish to get hurt and because a fall would stop my experimenting, which I would not like at all. The man who wishes to keep at the problem long enough to really learn anything positively must not take dangerous risks.
~ Wilbur Wright
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Everyone else
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
~ Haruki Murakami
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Open to
It’s a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn’t want to hear.
~ Richard Cavett
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A good story
The best arguments in the world won’t change a single person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.
~ Richard Powers
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Wisdom
My definition of wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions.
~ Naval Ravikant
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Improvement
People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing—refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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