Life Lessons
Listen up, guys: this is good [drawing a question mark on the board]... and this is bad [drawing an exclamation point].
Good is doubt, when you meet someone who doubts, relax, it means they're a good person, it means they're democratic, tolerant.
But when you meet these ones [pointing at the exclamation point], those who are certain, with unwaverin
Marcus Aurelius, summed it up in eight words—eight words that can determine your destiny: “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
Dale Carnegie • How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (Dale Carnegie Books)
The greatest sign of an ill-regulated mind is to believe things because you wish them to be so.
~ Louis Pasteur
Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people—unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful. You’ll be too preoccupied with what so-and-so is doing, and why, and what they’re saying, and what they’re thinking, and what they’re up to, and all the other things that throw you off and keep you from
... See moreMarcus Aurelius • Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library)
What Kind of Game are You Playing
In the 1999 tennis book, Extraordinary Tennis for the Ordinary Tennis Player, author Simon Ramo broke down the difference between amateur and professional tennis, writing that they were two different types of games:
Amateur tennis is a Loser's Game: 80% of points are lost on unforced errors. You win by avoiding error
Tact is not the quality by which you often please, but by which you seldom offend.
— Alice Wellington Rollins
The Loudest Alarm is Probably False
A curious thing I've noticed: among the friends whose inner monologues I get to hear, the most self-sacrificing ones are frequently worried they are being too selfish, the loudest ones are constantly afraid they are not being heard, the most introverted ones are regularly terrified that they're claiming more than
... See moreThe less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what’s in front of us.
Ryan Holiday • Stillness is the Key: An Ancient Strategy for Modern Life (The Way, the Enemy and the Key)
The person who carefully designs their daily routine goes further than the person who negotiates with themselves every day.
—Farnham Street