“The irony is that this ‘fake it till you make it’ tactic is the exact opposite of how truly successful people live. They live with authentic vulnerability because they know that the world always connects more with your grit than your shine. They might show up for the shine, but they will stay because of your grit.”
Joshua Medcalf, Pound The Stone
“There’s a phrase out there that says, ‘Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn.’ I can’t stand that phrase. And the reason I can’t stand that phrase is because it implies two things. It implies that you can’t learn from winning. Like you win or you learn? No, you can learn a lot from winning. Success leaves clues. What it also implies, losing is some word that no one says of, ‘Oh, I didn’t lose. I learned.’ No, you lost. Own it. You lost, you got beat today, and that’s life you’re going to lose sometimes. And instead of flowering it up and saying, “No, no, I didn’t lose. I just ran out of time. I didn’t lose.” No, you lost.”
Justin Su’a, via Farnam Street Blog
“Remember this: weak character will neutralize all of the other possible good qualities a person might possess. For instance, people of high intelligence but weak character may come up with good ideas and even do a job well, but they will crumble under pressure, or they will not take too kindly to criticism, or they will think first and foremost of their own agenda, or their arrogance and annoying qualities will cause others around them to quit, harming the general environment. There are hidden costs to working with them or hiring them.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 182)
“With every pilgrimage one encounters the temporality of life. To die along the road is destiny. Or so I told myself.”
Bashō, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page 14)
“Remember that your understanding of your inner self holds the meaning of your life, and it makes you free if you do not force it to serve your flesh. The human soul which is enlightened by understanding and freed from passions, and lit with the divine light, stands on a firm foundation.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 153)
“You should behave in such a way that you can say to everybody, ‘Behave as I do.'”
Immanuel Kant, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 152)
“A wise man was asked, ‘Is there a single word which you can follow throughout all your life?’ And the wise man answered, ‘There is such a word. This is shu.’ And the meaning of this word is, ‘If we do not want certain things to be done to us, we should not do such things to others.'”
Chinese Wisdom, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 152)
“Do you think that anybody can damage your soul? Then why are you so embarrassed? I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even tough the things which are really mine and with which I live.”
Epictetus, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 147)
“Only the truth which was acquired by your own thinking, through the efforts of your intellect, becomes a member of your own body, and only this truth really belongs to us.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 146)
“Only the one who attains perfect sincerity under heaven may discover one’s ‘true nature.'”
Confucius, via Narrow Road To The Interior (Page XXXVII)
“Abide by rules, then throw them out!—only then may you achieve true freedom.”
Bashō, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page XXIII)
“Despite his ability to attract students, he seems to have spent much of his time in a state of perpetual despondency, loneliness everywhere crowding in on him. No doubt this state of mind was compounded by chronically poor health, but Bashō was also engaging true sabishi, a spiritual loneliness that served haikai culture in much the same way mu or ‘nothingness’ served Zen.”
Sam Hamill, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page XXXI)
“Life is the constant approach to death; therefore, life can be bliss only when death does not seem to be an evil.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 145)
“His journey is a pilgrimage; it is a journey into the interior of the self as much as a travelogue, a vision quest that concludes in insight. But there is no conclusion. The journey itself is home. The means is the end, just as it is the beginning. Each step is the first step, each step the last.”
Sam Hamill, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page XXIII)
“Ignore the front that people display, the myth that surrounds them, and instead plumb their depths for signs of their character. This can be seen in the patterns they reveal from their past, the quality of their decisions, how they delegate authority and work with others, and countless other signs.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 170)
“Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves.”
Unknown, via Narrow Road To The Interior (Page XXI)
“The attitude is paradoxical: the Zen poet believes the real experience of poetry lies somewhere beyond the words themselves but, like a good Confucian, believes simultaneously that only the perfect word perfectly placed has the power to reveal the authentic experience of the poem.”
Sam Hamill, Narrow Road To The Interior (Page XVIII)
You work and work for years and years, you're always on the go You never take a minute off, too busy makin' dough Someday you say, you'll have your fun, when you're a millionaire Imagine all the fun you'll have in your old rockin' chair Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink The years go by, as quickly as a wink Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think ~ Guy Lombardo, Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think
“The most significant indicator of people’s character comes through their actions over time. Despite what people say about the lessons they have learned, and how they have changed over the years, you will inevitably notice the same actions and decisions repeating in the course of their life. In these decisions they reveal their character.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 166)
“Remove the branches of a thorn bush today and you’ll avoid a scrape this year. But next year, you’ll face the same problem again. Remove the root of the bush today, and the entire plant will die. Are you solving problems at the branch level or the root level?”
James Clear, Blog