Ryan Holiday

Think progress, not perfection.

A person that thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts.

Tolstoy expressed his exasperation at people who didn’t read deeply and regularly. “I cannot understand,” he said, “how some people can live without communicating with the wisest people who ever lived on earth.

If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters — don’t wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important, distrust yourself.” — EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 13a

In every situation, life is asking us a question, and our actions are the answer.

Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life has much difficulty and sadness and remains far behind yours. Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words. — RAINER MARIA RILKE

People learn from their failures. Seldom do they learn anything from success.” It’s

5 Core Principles of Stoicism:

1. Focus on what you can control.
2. You control how you respond to things.
3. Ask yourself, “Is this essential?”
4. Meditate on your mortality every day.
5. Value time more than money/possessions.

Be the person who surprises others with your genuine interest in them, the respect you extend, and your disregard for unnecessary formalities or status symbols.

It’s a temptation that exists for everyone — for talk and hype to replace action.

discipline means being disciplined in all things, especially little things.

Why do you think that great leaders and thinkers throughout history have “gone out into the wilderness” and come back with inspiration, with a plan, with an experience that puts them on a course that changes the world? It’s because in doing so they found perspective, they understood the larger picture in a way that wasn’t possible in the bustle of everyday life. Silencing the noise around them, they could finally hear the quiet voice they needed to listen to.

To each,” Winston Churchill would say, “there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.

Every obstacle is an opportunity to get better.

Remember: No one is having less fun than an overextended, overcommitted person with debtors at their door.