“Today, we could hope that goodness comes our way—good news, good weather, good luck. Or we could find it ourselves, in ourselves. Goodness isn’t something that’s going to be delivered by mail. You have to dig it up inside your own soul. You find it within your own thoughts, and you make it with your own actions.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 317)
“What’s the point of winning at sports but losing in the effort to be a good husband, wife, father, mother, son, or daughter? Let’s not confuse getting better at stuff with being a better person. One is a much bigger priority than the other.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 315)
“Often, we try to pretend that growth comes with no goodbyes, but it does. Perhaps we can go in with our eyes open, understanding that what we begin will likely end. And when we plan for it, we’ll do it better.”
Seth Godin, Blog
“Instead of wasting even a second considering the opinions of future people—people who are not even born yet—focus every bit of yourself on being the best person you can be in the present moment. On doing the right thing, right now. The distant future is irrelevant. Be good and noble and impressive now—while it matters.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 314)
“Until death, it is all life.”
Miguel De Cervantes, via Between Two Kingdoms
“Never mind. The self is the least of it. Let our scars fall in love.”
Galway Kinnell, via Sunbeams (Page 141)
“The best revenge is to exact no revenge at all. If someone treats you rudely and you respond with rudeness, you have not done anything but prove to them that they were justified in their actions. If you meet other people’s dishonesty with dishonesty of your own, guess what? You’re proving them right—now everyone is a liar.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 306)
“How much better to heal than seek revenge from injury. Vengeance wastes a lot of time and exposes you to many more injuries than the first that sparked it. Anger always outlasts hurt. Best to take the opposite course. Would anyone think it normal to return a kick to a mule or a bite to a dog?”
Seneca, On Anger, The Daily Stoic (Page 306)
“There is almost no situation in which hatred helps. Yet almost every situation is made better by love—or empathy, understanding, appreciation—even situations in which you are in opposition to someone. And who knows, you might just get some of that love back.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 305)
“How rotten and fraudulent when people say they intend to ‘give it to you straight.’ What are you up to, dear friend? It shouldn’t need your announcement, but be readily seen as if written on your forehead, heard in the ring of your voice, a flash in your eyes—just as the beloved sees it all in the lover’s glance. In short, the straightforward and good person should be like a smelly goat—you know when they are in the room with you.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 304)
“This is the true joy in life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no ‘brief candle’ for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
George Bernard Shaw, via Sunbeams (Page 140)
“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.”
Maori proverb, via Sunbeams (Page 139)
“Work is life. Not having something to do with one’s life, something important or unique to your talents or however you put it, is a bigger killer than cancer.”
Ray Mungo, via Sunbeams (Page 138)
“All search for happiness is misery and leads to more misery. The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj, via Sunbeams (Page 138)
“The good and the wise lead quiet lives.”
Euripides, via Sunbeams (Page 138)
“The beginning of all things are weak and tender. We must therefore be clear-sighted in the beginnings.”
Michel de Montaigne, via Twitter
“Art is the method of levitation, in order to separate one’s self from enslavement by the earth.”
Anaïs Nin, via Sunbeams (Page 137)