Quotes

Strategy

Published September 19, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 19  ·  

Most of us in life are tacticians, not strategists. We become so enmeshed in the conflicts we face that we can think only of how to get what we want in the battle we are currently facing. To think strategically is difficult and unnatural. You may imagine you are being strategic, but in all likelihood you are merely being tactical. To have the power that only strategy can bring, you must be able to elevate yourself above the battlefield, to focus on your long-term objectives, to craft an entire campaign, to get out of the reactive mode that so many battles in life lock you into.

~ Robert Greene

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Success

Published September 18, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 18  ·  

To be a successful creator, you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, clients, or fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only 1,000 true fans.

~ Kevin Kelly

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Relationship

Published September 17, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 17  ·  

A person is not created either to subdue others, or to follow the orders of others. People are corrupted by both ways of behavior. In the first they assume too much importance, in the second, too little respect. In both ways there is very little dignity.

~ Victor Considérant

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Whose thoughts

Published September 16, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 16  ·  

Some people live and act according to their own thoughts, and some according to the thoughts of others; this is a crucial distinction between people.

~ Leo Tolstoy

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Fear and misery

Published September 15, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 15  ·  

The Stoics knew that fear was to be feared because of the miseries it creates. The things we fear pale in comparison to the damage we do to ourselves and others when we unthinkingly scramble to avoid them. An economic depression is bad; a panic is worse. A tough situation isn’t helped by terror—it only makes things harder. And that’s why we must resist it and reject it if we wish to turn this situation around.

~ Ryan Holiday

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The chasm between

Published September 14, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 14  ·  

Too often there is a chasm between our ideas and knowledge on the one hand and our actual experience on the other. We absorb trivia and information that take up mental space but get us nowhere. We read books that divert us but have little relevance to our daily lives. We have lofty ideas that we do not put into practice. We also have many rich experiences that we do not analyze enough, that do not inspire us with ideas, whose lessons we ignore. Strategy requires a constant contact between the two realms.

~ Robert Greene

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What happens now

Published September 13, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 13  ·  

Do not bother about what will happen someday, somewhere, in the far away distance, in a future time; think and be very attentive to what happens now, here, in this place.

~ John Ruskin

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Emptiness

Published September 12, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 12  ·  

People jump back and forth in pursuit of pleasures only because they see the emptiness of their lives more clearly than they do the emptiness of whichever new entertainment attracts them.

~ Blaise Pascal

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Influencing others

Published September 11, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 11  ·  

The possibility of influencing others causes a person with high morals to be more strict about his words and actions which could influence other people.

~ Leo Tolstoy

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The journey to virtue

Published September 10, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 10  ·  

The journey of the wise to virtue is as a journey to a remote land, or the ascent of a high mountain. People who travel to a faraway place start with a single step, and those who climb a high mountain start from the bottom.

~ Confucius

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Some ironic distance

Published September 9, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 9  ·  

Finally, when it comes to your own self-opinion, try to have some ironic distance from it. Make yourself aware of its existence and how it operates within you. Come to terms with the fact that you are not as free and autonomous as you like to believe. You do conform to the opinions of the groups you belong to; You do buy products because of subliminal influence; You can be manipulated. Realize as well that you are not as good as the idealized image of your self-opinion.

~ Robert Greene

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Clichés

Published September 8, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 8  ·  

The problem with clichés is not that they contain false ideas, but rather that they are superficial articulations of very good ones. […] Clichés are detrimental in so far as they inspire us to believe that they adequately describe a situation while merely grazing its surface. And if this matters, it is because the way we speak is ultimately linked to the way we feel, because how we describe the world must at some level reflect how we first experience it.

~ Alain De Botton

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Not your soul

Published September 7, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 7  ·  

You cannot sell your talent, your genius; as soon as you do, you are a prostitute. You can sell your work, but not your soul.

~ John Ruskin

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False ideas

Published September 6, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 6  ·  

False ideas which gain currency can easily be recognized by the loud fanfare with which they are accompanied. Real truth does not need any other embellishments.

~ Leo Tolstoy

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The way to virtue

Published September 5, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 5  ·  

The way to fame goes through the palaces, the way to happiness goes through the markets, the way to virtue goes through the deserts.

~ Chinese proverb

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Elusive of casual definition

Published September 4, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 4  ·  

We feel something, and reach out for the nearest phrase or hum with which to communicate, but which fails to do justice to what has induced us to do so. We hear Beethoven’s Ninth and hum poum, poum, poum, we see the pyramids at Giza and go, “that’s nice.” These sounds are asked to account for an experience, but their poverty prevents either us or our interlocutors from really understanding what we have lived through. We stay on the outside of our impressions, as if staring at them through a frosted window, superficially related to them, yet estranged from whatever has eluded casual definition.

~ Alain De Botton

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Falsity and simplicity

Published September 3, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 3  ·  

False science and false religion express their dogmas in highly elevated language to make simple people think that they are mysterious, important, and attractive. But this mysterious language is not a sign of wisdom. The wiser a person is, the simpler the language he uses to express his thoughts.

~ Lucy Malory

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A bad example

Published September 2, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 2  ·  

Nothing is more harmful than a bad example set by others. They bring into our life notions which never would have occurred to us without an example.

~ Leo Tolstoy

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Happiness

Published September 1, 2022  ·  All posts on Sep 1  ·  

Pleasure, luxury—these things you call happiness, but I think that to wish nothing is the happiness of god, and when you wish to have only small things, then you make yourself closer to this divine and high happiness.

~ Socrates

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What is philosophy for?

Published August 31, 2022  ·  All posts on Aug 31  ·  

Philosophy isn’t a parlor trick or made for show. It’s not concerned with words, but with facts. It’s not employed for some pleasure before the day is spent, or to relieve the uneasiness of our leisure. It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides actions, shows what should and shouldn’t be done—it sits at the rudder steering our course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advise is to be sought out in philosophy.

~ Seneca

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