“Having a billion dollars is great, but having a billion seconds is priceless. There is no amount of money in the world that can purchase immortality. Every human eventually runs out of time.”
Anthony Pompliano, Blog
“Perhaps the greatest test of love is the way we act in times of need. It is the moment of accountability that all relationships seem to arc toward.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 281)
“At times, my heart feels so haunted that there’s no room for the living—for the possibility of new love, new loss.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 289)
“I’m realizing that if I am to cross the distance between near-death and renewal, instead of trying to bury my pain, I must use it as a guide to know myself better. In confronting my past, I have to reckon not only with the pain of losing other people but also with the pain I’ve caused others. I must keep seeking truths and teachers on these long, lonely stretches of highway even when—especially when—the search brings discomfort.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 283)
“Turn your mind away from the things that provoke it. If you find that discussing politics at the dinner table leads to fighting, why do you keep bringing it up? If your sibling’s life choices bother you, why don’t you stop picking at them and making them your concern? The same goes for so many other sources of aggravation. It’s not a sign of weakness to shut them out. Instead, it’s a sign of strong will.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 349)
“Untamed fear consumes you, becomes you, until what you are most afraid of turns alive.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 281)
“It is hard to rage at something as nebulous as cancer. You have to steer the trajectory of your anger, ideally toward a canvas or a notebook, before it hurdles toward a human target.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 281)
“While it’s easy to destroy the past, it’s far more difficult to forget it.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 279)
“I told everyone I was fine, when in fact I needed the privacy to fall apart.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 270)
“I tell my kids, what is the difference between a hero and a coward? What is the difference between being [cowardly] and being brave? No difference. Only what you do. They both feel the same. They both fear dying and getting hurt. The man who is [cowardly] refuses to face up to what he’s got to face. The hero is more disciplined and he fights those feelings off and he does what he has to do. But they both feel the same, the hero and the coward. People who watch you judge you on what you do, not how you feel.”
Cus D’amato, Bad Intentions
“To quell my own fears, I needed space from theirs.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 252)
“Odd things happen when you’re on a road trip alone. The monotony of driving becomes meditative: The mind unwrinkles. As the usual anxieties and concerns vacate, daydreams flit in. Occasionally, a wisp of an idea appears out of nowhere only to recede, a shimmery mirage in a desert. Other times, an avalanche of memories tumbles forth, loosened by an old song on the radio or a deja vu—inducing landscape. The interplay between geography and memory becomes a conversation. They spark and spur each other.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 244)
“Recovery isn’t a gentle self-care spree that restores you to a pre-illness state. Though the word may suggest otherwise, recovery is not about salvaging the old at all. It’s about accepting that you must forsake a familiar self forever, in favor of one that is being newly born. It is an act of brute, terrifying discovery.”
Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 234)
“Loss is one of our deepest fears. Ignorance and pretending don’t make things any better. They just mean the loss will be all the more jarring when it occurs.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 349)
“Devastation—that feeling that we’re absolutely crushed and shocked by an event—is a factor of how unlikely we considered that event in the first place. No one is wrecked by the fact that it’s snowing in the winter, because we’ve accepted (and even anticipated) this turn of events. What about the occurrences that surprise us? We might not be so shocked if we took the time to consider their possibility.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 347)
“Perhaps today will be the day when we experience happiness or wisdom. Don’t try to grab that moment and hold on to it with all your might. It’s not under your control how long it lasts. Enjoy it, recognize it, remember it. Having it for a moment is the same as having it forever.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 346)
“Not every problem needs to be overcome, just the ones stopping you from getting where you want to be.”
Ann Hill, Twitter
“’How much could I lose?’ is not merely a financial question. If I make this choice: How much time could I lose? How much sanity could I lose? How much reputation could I lose? How much happiness could I lose? Opportunity cost is about a lot more than money.”
James Clear, Blog
“The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.”
Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker, via Sunbeams (Page 144)