Tim Ferriss Quotes

American author, entrepreneur, angel investor and public speaker

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Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American author, entrepreneur, and public speaker, best known for his 2007 book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, which was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller.

Bio from: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Portrait adapted from: Wikimedia Commons, Jeff Kubina from Columbia, Maryland (CC BY-SA)

Native Name: Timothy Ferriss

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Engraved portrait of Tim Ferriss, facing left

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If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. — CHINESE PROVERB

One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity. — BRUCE LEE

People who avoid all criticism fail. It's destructive criticism we need to avoid, not criticism in all forms.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” –Marcus Aurelius

Though you can upgrade your brain domestically, traveling and relocating provides unique conditions that make progress much faster. The different surroundings act as a counterpoint and mirror for your own prejudices, making weaknesses that much easier to fix.

Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages. — DAVE BARRY

If you ran into an asshole in the morning you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole.

Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.

Pareto's Law can be summarized as follows: 80% of the outputs
result from 20% of the inputs.

One of my favorite quotes is by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children . . . to leave the world a bit better . . . to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; this is to have succeeded.

If you let your learning lead to knowledge, you become a fool. If you let your learning lead to action, you become wealthy.

Doing less meaningless work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness.

Our fears are always more numerous than our dangers.” — Seneca the Younger

Strauss, Neil: “‘The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.’ — Norman Vincent Peale

If you understand principles, you can create tactics. If you are dependent on perishable tactics, you are always at a disadvantage.