“When I left him, I reasoned thus with myself: I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.”
Socrates, via The Daily Laws (Page 373)
“Healing does not erase the past, and the point of healing is not to forget what has happened. Old memories from hard moments may come up even after deep healing has taken place, but what shifts is how we react to them when they arise. If the intensity of the reaction is decreasing, then real progress is being made. This has nothing to do with suppressing the reaction; it is just a measure of what is actually happening in the mind, It is possible to feel your truth without getting consumed by it or letting it control your behavior.”
Yung Pueblo
“Do not be afraid to bring out the more sensitive or ambitious sides to your character. These repressed parts of you are yearning to be let out. In the theater of life, expand the roles that you play. Don’t worry about people’s reactions to any changes in you they sense. You are not so easy to categorize, which will fascinate them and give you the power to play with their perceptions of you, altering them at will.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 372)
“The purpose of your life is not to do as the majority does, but to live according to the inner law which you understand in yourself. Do not act against your conscience or against truth. Live like this, and you will fulfill the task of your life.”
Marcus Aurelius, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 309)
“Sometimes it benefits us to be passive: to allow life to come to us and unfold without force. Other times it benefits us to be aggressive: to bend the world to our will and actively shape the life we want. Are you being too passive or too aggressive right now?”
James Clear, Blog
“The will to win is wasted if it is directed towards trivial affairs.”
James Clear, Blog
“If you’re sticking with a job, even though it’s making you miserable, because you think that grit is the same thing as character and that it is weak-willed to walk away from something—the problem is you forget that you’ll be walking towards something. And the thing that you would be walking towards could actually be a lot better. And so sticking has the associative cost of not just the misery you’re currently feeling in that horrible job but also all the happiness you could be gaining from the other things you could be doing.”
Annie Duke
“Without altering the facts of the situation I am facing and without ignoring the reality of what must be done, what is the most useful and empowering story I can tell myself about what is happening and what I need to do next?”
James Clear, Blog
“One of the great gifts of sports is learning how to fail in public. People never go to the gym because they’re scared of looking stupid, never share their writing because they’re scared of judgment, never open their heart because they’re scared of rejection. Sports train you to face your fear.”
James Clear, Blog
