The art of using moderate abilities to advantage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation than actual brilliance.
~ Rochefoucauld
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Quotes
Strike at the root
There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
~ Henry David Thoreau
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Truth
Remember that truth is the greatest thing in the world. If you will be great, you will be true. If you suppress the truth, if you hide truth, if you do not rise up and speak out in meeting, if you speak out in meeting without speaking the whole truth, then are you less true than truth and by that much are you less than great.
~ Jack London
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Going full circle
No matter where your adventure takes you, most of what is truly meaningful is still to be found revolving around the mundane stuff you did before you embarked on your adventure. The stuff that’ll be still be going on long after you and I are both dead, long after our contribution to the world is forgotten.But often, one needs to have that big adventure before truly appreciating this. Going full circle. Exactly.
~ Hugh MacLeod
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Loving-kindness
Happiest day in seven years. And what did it take to achieve that? It took 10 seconds of secretly wishing for 2 other people to be happy for 8 repetitions, a total of 80 seconds of thinking. That, my friends, is the awesome power of loving-kindness.
~ Chade-Meng Tan
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Words and actions
An able man shows his spirit by gentle words and resolute actions.
~ Chesterfield
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Choices
What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?
~ Horace
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Three great things
The three great things of life are: Good health; Work; And a philosophy of life. I may add, nay, must add, a fourth—Sincerity. Without this, the other three are without avail; And with it you may cleave to greatness and sit among giants.
~ Jack London
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Excellence is a moral act
… excellence is not a law of physics. Excellence is a moral act.
~ Huch MacLeod
You create excellence by deciding to do so, nothing more. It doesn’t matter if you went to the wrong school, or were born on the wrong side of the tracks, or working the wrong job.
You go into the situation and you go the extra mile. Your decision. You own it. You own the potential downsides as well.
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In summary
The chronological summary of a man’s life is of all composition for students perhaps the most futile. […] “What of it?” remains to be asked at the end; And if the student begin there, not rewriting the annals, but seeking throughout the characteristic traits, the typical activities, the expression of individuality, he will find no better practice. Thus not only the reader, but far more the writer, gains by the abandoning of the order of chronology.
~ Charles Sears Baldwin
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Poverty
For a generous and noble spirit cannot be expected to dwell in the breast of men who are struggling for their daily bread.
~ Dionysius
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Evil
An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.
~ Quintilian
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Discontent
This is discontent, but it is not the discontent of pessimism. It is noble discontent which is the secret of progress. Only the pusillanimous are content. Heart’s desires are divine discontents. Only the unsatisfied do things. The satisfied do nothing. Unsatisfaction is the stimulus to achievement. Satisfaction is destruction and leads down to the chamber of death.
~ Jack London
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A self
But in order to be self-aware, first one needs a self to be aware of. And that takes a while. Often an entire lifetime.
~ Hugh MacLeod
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Change in name only
In a change of government the poor change nothing but the name of their masters.
~ Phaedrus
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What are you capable of?
Anyone can put a challenge in front of themselves that they are unable to do. How well do you know what you are capable of? How well do you know how to make yourself capable of more. I train to know who I am and how I can improve.
~ Jesse Danger
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In the bud
Every evil in the bud is easily crushed; As it grows older it becomes stronger.
~ Cicero
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Thought and action
Please remember I am talking about the world as it is. The men who act without thinking, and the men who both think and act, are the ones who mould the world. The man who thinks and does not act never moulds the world. He may think that he does—but that, too, is only a thought, the thought of a deedless, actionless thinker.
~ Jack London
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Otherwise life feels empty
So I make it really simple. I’d say art is: “That which you have no choice but to do, because your soul demands it”.
~ Hugh MacLeod
Yes, it’s a fairly flawed definition. But it illustrates something that most people don’t get about artists or entrepreneurs. We do it, because if we don’t, life feels empty. The downside being, it doesn’t exactly come with an easy life.
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If you change
You have two options. You can stay the same and protect the formula that gave you your initial success. They’re going to crucify you for staying the same. If you change, they’re going to crucify you for changing. But staying the same is boring. And change is interesting. So of the two options, I’d rather be crucified for changing.
~ Joni Mithcell
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