Ryan Holiday Quotes

Historia est magistra vitae. History is the teacher of life.

Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.

The world is complicated. Things are always changing. We are constantly learning, being exposed to things we didn't know or consider.

Our minds must be flexible and open enough to accommodate this.

Too much study and not enough doing creates a paucity of knowledge, a shelter of naïveté, no matter how smart you are.

Ordinary people shy away from negative situations

What great people do is the opposite

In Times of Crisis We Need More:

- Compassion
- Kinship
- Service
- Courage

And Less:

- Selfishness
- Distrust
- Ingratitude
- Dread

Moderation. Being present. Knowing your limits.

This is the key.

Success breeds softness.

It also breeds fear: We become addicted to our creature comforts. And then we become afraid of losing them.

You can't beat a problem by debating it, only by deciding what you're going to do about it and then doing it.

Only a fool negates the body in favor of the mind, or the mind in favor of the body.

And that’s what is so insidious about talk. Anyone can talk about himself or herself. Even a child knows how to gossip and chatter. Most people are decent at hype and sales. So what is scarce and rare? Silence. The ability to deliberately keep yourself out of the conversation and subsist without its validation. Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong.

Think progress, not perfection.

Today, each of us receives our own call.
To serve.
To take a risk.
To challenge the status quo.

When intelligent people read, they ask themselves a simple question: What do I plan to do with this information?

Titles feed the ego. Effort feeds the soul.