What really matters
More and more it seems to me that about the best thing in life is to have a piece of work worth doing and then to do it well.
Leadership Quotes by Doris Kearns Goodwin
One fundamental criterion of a life well lived is love of life. It is terribly important, therefore, to enjoy life as it goes along. Joy cannot be postponed. Life as is is of infinite value.
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
Most other resources on which we rely as individuals—such as food, money, and electricity—are things that facilitate life, and in some cases it’s possible to live without them, at least for a while. Attention, on the other hand, just is life: your experience of being alive consists of nothing other than the sum of everything to which you pay attent... See more
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights, a life in w
... See moreAnna Quindlen • Anna Quindlen's Commencement Address at Villanova
nostalgia is the enemy of progress
The insatiable goals to acquire more, succeed conspicuously, and be as attractive as possible lead us to objectify one another, and even ourselves. When people see themselves as little more than their attractive bodies, jobs, or bank accounts, it brings great suffering…You become a heartless taskmaster to yourself, seeing yourself as nothing more
... See moreArthur C. Brooks • The Satisfaction Trap
Hold on tightly, but let go lightly. Nearly everything can be replaced. And if it can’t be replaced, celebrate its existence instead of fretting over its loss.