Good people help others with no concern for themselves. Smart people help others while also helping themselves. Evil people hurt others to help themselves. Dumb people hurt themselves and others. - Balaji Srinivasan
Good people help others with no concern for themselves. Smart people help others while also helping themselves. Evil people hurt others to help themselves. Dumb people hurt themselves and others. - Balaji Srinivasan
The meaning of life is solving your problems. - Brett Hall
When you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word "succeed," you find that it simply means to follow through. - F. W. Nichol
Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love. - Fyodor Dostoevsky
What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love. - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Remember: Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all. - Alexander the Great
No man's a prophet in his own land.
Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. - C.S. Lewis.
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The fool is always getting ready to live. - Seneca
A person's success in life can be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. - Tim Ferriss
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. - Charles Darwin
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. - Charles Darwin
A man who dares to waste an hour of time has not discovered the value of his life. - Charles Darwin
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful. - Sigmund Freud
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. - Albert Einstein
Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value. - Albert Einstein
Religion is the opium of the masses. - Karl Marx
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg. - Abraham Lincoln
Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful. - Warren Buffett
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is contempt prior to examination. - Herbert Spencer
Building technology means you don’t have to choose between practicing science, commerce, and art. - Naval Ravikant
If you can’t be unique, you have to be excellent. If you can’t be excellent you have to be unique. - Eric Jorgenson
Boredom comes from a boring mind. - Metallica
I am sure that if the devil existed, he would want us to feel very sorry for him. - Martha Stout
The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself. - Seneca
Charlie’s most important architectural feat was the design of today’s Berkshire. The blueprint he gave me was simple: Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices; instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices. -Warren Buffett, 2014 Letter to Shareholders
Man is born broken. He lives by mending. - Eugene O'Neill
If you chase two rabbits... you will not catch either one. - Russian proverb
The worst thing a person can be is untruthful and overly emotional. - Ian Greer
Names do not constitute knowledge. - Richard Feynman
Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts. - Richard Feynman
Signaling virtue is a vice. - Naval Ravikant
[On meditation:] When the best hour of my day is spent by myself, then the world has very little to offer. - Naval Ravikant
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. - Marie Curie
If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you. - Jim Mattis
We read a lot. I don’t know anyone who’s wise who doesn’t read a lot. But that’s not enough: you have to have a temperament to grab ideas and do sensible things. Most people don’t grab the right ideas or don’t know what to do with them. - Charlie Munger
The writer Jonathan Lethem has said that when people call something “original,” nine out of ten times they just don’t know the references or the original sources involved. - Austin Kleon
Fitness is certainly the sign of strength, but outside of natural stimuli the drive to acquire fitness can signal some deep incurable weakness. - Nassim Taleb
Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur. - Nassim Taleb
Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death. - Leonardo da Vinci
Great people have flaws and limitations. Hire other great people to fill in the gaps. Have friends who fill in the gaps. - Robert Greene
We prefer to see “winners” as “naturally talented” rather than “hard working.” Because if it were reversed, what would that imply about us? - Naval Ravikant
Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce? - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tolerant with others, strict with yourself. - Marcus Aurelius
Loss and change: two words for the same thing. - Marcus Aurelius
It takes a decade to build a clear mind, then you suddenly get “lucky.” - Naval Ravikant
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. - Arthur Schopenhauer
The difference between a child and an adult is that an adult is not a victim. An adult doesn't blame others for their misfortune or ask others for help.
[On admitting someone into psychotherapy:] You have to admit that there is something wrong and you have to admit that you want to change. - Carl Jung
Pessimism is just a psychological reaction people have when they can’t figure out what’s going on. - Chamath Palihapitiya
Choice is a first world problem. - Sheldon Solomon
Therefore it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the case. - Machiavelli
A great part of courage is the courage of having done that thing before. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
You leave behind most popular entertainments once you understand the value of learning.
The only two ways to coordinate human societies at scale are free markets and physical power. Any ideology rejecting free markets is just advocating for power. Socialism, communism, and fascism all converge to the same endpoint - rule by the biggest thug. - Naval Ravikant
There are those who will thank you for what you gave them and others who will blame you for what you did not give them. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Boldness makes even the smallest animal dangerous. - Robert Greene
Our life is what our thoughts make it. - Marcus Aurelius
Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been. - Marcus Aurelius
Is an emerald suddenly flawed if no one admires it? - Marcus Aurelius
Not to assume it’s impossible because you find it hard. But to recognize that if it’s humanly possible, you can do it too. - Marcus Aurelius
You shouldn’t be surprised that a fig tree produces figs. - Marcus Aurelius
No, relationships aren’t complicated when they are with smart, thoughtful people.
For how could we do what justice requires if we are distracted by things that don’t matter, if we are naive, gullible, inconstant? - Marcus Aurelius
The more I know, the more I understand that everything eventually comes down to mindset and spirit. Nothing is impossible for the right man. Unfortunately, most people are taught from a young age that they are "normal people." You cannot reap greatness from that foundation.
How to view the world: view yourself as an explorer. With the gift of consciousness, you stand before a vast and unknown universe that we humans have just begun to investigate. - Robert Greene
You can’t save the world by watching the news.
Conscious ignorance, if you can practice it, expands your world; it can make things infinite. - Nassim Taleb
Attention Deficit Disorder, Seasonal Affect Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder. These aren't diseases, they're marketing ploys. Doctors didn't discover them, copywriters did. Marketing departments did. Drug companies did. - Steven Pressfield
Doctors estimate that seventy to eighty percent of their business is non-health-related. People aren't sick, they're self-dramatizing. - Steven Pressfield
We all think the past version of ourselves was a fool, but somehow, we think the current version is not.
Once someone assumes the point of view that life's difficulties must be avoided, they are inviting anxiety in, and once in, it will reinforce that point of view. - Alfred Adler
Fear of death or sickness is a typical characteristic of people who are seeking an excuse to avoid all duties and obligations. - Alfred Adler
If all heroism is erased, we fall back into the misery of humanity and into even worse. - Carl Jung
We also live in our dreams, we do not live only by day. Sometimes we accomplish our greatest deeds in dreams. - Carl Jung
If one-half of mankind is at fault, then every man is half at fault. But he does not see the conflict in his own soul, which is however the source of the outer disaster. - Carl Jung
Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult—once we truly understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. - M. Scott Peck
The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. - William James
Stress primarily comes from not taking action over something that you can have some control over… stress comes from ignoring things that you shouldn’t be ignoring. - Jeff Bezos
The best approach: friendly, but persistent
There are a limitless number of different sciences, but without one basic science, that is, what is the meaning of life and what is good for the people, all other forms of knowledge and art become idle and harmful entertainment. - Leo Tolstoy
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. - Eric Hoffer
When an arrow does not hit its target, the marksman blames himself, not another person. A wise man behaves in the same way. - Confucius
Did you ever think of the evil in you?... did you know what evil is, and that it stands precisely right behind your virtues, that it is also your virtues themselves, as their inevitable substance? - Carl Jung
Without death, life would be meaningless, since the long-lasting rises again and denies its own meaning. To be, and to enjoy your being, you need death, and limitation enables you to fulfill your being. - Carl Jung
He who believes he is really living his ideals or believes he can live them, suffers from delusions of grandeur and behaves like a lunatic in that he stages himself as an ideal; but the hero has fallen. - Carl Jung
Don't be so humble - you are not that great. - Golda Meir
A happy person isn’t someone who’s happy all the time. It’s someone who effortlessly interprets events in such a way that they don’t lose their innate peace. - Naval Ravikant
You naturally take more risks the day you realize the biggest risk is to live an empty life.
Virtually everyone is worse off than somebody else, if only in one dimension, so there are nearly unlimited opportunities to pander to people’s sense of injustice, victimhood, and entitlement. - Thomas Sowell
If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters. - Epictetus
If you blame others for your anxiety, you will not be free from it. You will simply resent other people and try to change them.
Don't waste time justifying yourself to people who lack the experience to understand.
Many people cannot differentiate between educated and credentialed.
Getting rid of the 'victim mentality' doesn’t mean nothing unfair ever happened to you. It means you focus on what’s still in your power.
A lot of problems can be solved just by removing some foods, some people, and some habits from your life.
Remember that every day a new customer is born. - Nassim Taleb
Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering, and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man. - Walter Williams
If we succumb to the illusion and the comfort of a paycheck, we then neglect to build up self-reliant skills and merely postpone the day of reckoning when we are forced to fend for ourselves. - Robert Greene
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. - Haruki Murakami
Even if you escape the Matrix, you have no idea whether the world outside of it is just another Matrix.
For it is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well and look up to those who make no concessions. - Thucydides
If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not. - Elon Musk
Very few people genuinely want your success when it's uncorrelated to theirs.
Fools can be annoyance or entertainment, it depends on your own intelligence.
A common sign of unintelligence: Missing the point on purpose to get offended.
Life ends once you get addicted to comfort.
Time to think is the reward for thinking well at the right time.
You're a slave to everything that makes you angry.
If no one dislikes you, it also means you are not interesting.
You can’t build any sustainable relationship with people who don’t try to better themselves.
Success is never owned. It is only rented—and the rent is due every day. - Rory Vaden
Even the best teachers can't help students who gave up.
People who want things for free have already given up on themselves.
The need for certainty is the greatest disease the mind faces. - Robert Greene
Stay away from people who don't believe in themselves, there's no way they believe in you either.
Your personal experiences with money make up maybe 0.00000001% of what's happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works. So equally smart people can disagree about how and why recessions happen, how you should invest your money, what you should prioritize, how much risk you should take, and so on. - Morgan Housel
Not all success is due to hard work, and not all poverty is due to laziness. Keep this in mind when judging people, including yourself. - Morgan Housel
Beware the half-truth that is wholly believed.
A plan is only useful if it can survive reality. And a future filled with unknowns is everyone’s reality. - Morgan Housel
[On investing:] If you're terrific in this business, you're right six times out of ten. - Peter Lynch
Doing something you love on a schedule you can't control can feel the same as doing something you hate. - Morgan Housel
Things that have never happened before happen all the time. - Scott Sagan
Sunk costs—anchoring decisions to past efforts that can't be refunded—are a devil in a world where people change over time. They make our future selves prisoners to our past, different, selves. It's the equivalent of a stranger making major life decisions for you. - Morgan Housel
Bubbles form when the momentum of short-term returns attracts enough money that the makeup of investors shifts from mostly long term to mostly short term. - Morgan Housel
Few things matter more with money than understanding your own time horizon and not being persuaded by the actions and behaviors of people playing different games than you are. - Morgan Housel
For reasons I have never understood, people like to hear that the world is going to hell. - Deirdre McCloskey
A great conversation happens when two people think before they talk.
Laws come and go, ethics stay. - Nassim Taleb
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
If you live in the U.S. and haven’t started an online business and haven’t invested in U.S. stocks, don’t complain. You are overlooking your opportunities. - Ian Greer
I fancy that many men would have arrived at wisdom if they had not fancied that they had already arrived. - Seneca
Stating that something is a social construct isn’t a very big insight. We live in a society constructed by humans, so literally everything is a societal construct.
It’s not rich people that are keeping you from getting ahead. It’s your attempt to look like one of them without doing what it takes to actually become one of them.
Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today? - Thomas Sowell
If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever. - Thomas Aquinas
Nowadays, success is about knowing how to use the Internet intelligently.
The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient. - Warren Buffett.
A fit man who doesn't read will never be healthy. A smart man who neglects his body will never be wise.
The current environment programs the brain, but the clever brain can choose its upcoming environment. - Naval Ravikant
Most people did well in academics as these goals were defined by the external world. But people who do well in life are those who define audacious goals for themselves and work hard to meet them. Most people have no goals after they graduate. Non-concrete goals are wishes.
The purpose of the margin of safety is to render the forecast unnecessary. - Ben Graham
Behavior is hard to fix. When people say they’ve learned their lesson they underestimate how much of their previous mistake was caused by emotions that will return when faced with the same circumstances. - Morgan Housel
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. - Friedrich Nietzsche
Gibson’s law: “For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD.” In law and public policy, the observation that equally qualified expert witnesses can come to opposite conclusions.
People believe what they’ve seen happen exponentially more than what they read about has happened to other people, if they read about other people at all. We’re all biased to our own personal history. Everyone. If you’ve lived through hyperinflation, or a 50% bear market, or were born to rich parents, or have been discriminated against, you both understand something that people who haven’t experienced those things never will, but you’ll also likely overestimate the prevalence of those things happening again, or happening to other people. - Morgan Housel
Most people didn’t get the right kind of education; too many academic departments are too narrow, too territorial, too self-absorbed with parochial issues to focus on what they should be about, which is helping students become truly educated people. - Charlie Munger
I believe in… mastering the best that other people have figured out [rather than] sitting down and trying to dream it up yourself. - Charlie Munger
The fundamental paradox of politics: No society can be simultaneously fair, free, and equal. if it is fair, people who work harder can accumulate more. If it is free, people will give their wealth to their children. But then it cannot be equal, for some people will inherit wealth they did not earn. - Steven Pinker
If God gave man everything but one thing, man would be unhappy because he lacks that one thing.
In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is. - Yogi Berra
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. - Mark Twain
The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from. - David Bowie
The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths that are too complicated; he forgets truths that are too simple. - Rebecca West
Telling the truth is crazy in a world full of lies. - Kanye West
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. - Upton Sinclair
Amateurs talk about tactics, professionals talk about logistics. - Elon Musk
I'm at liberty to do whatever I want but I'm not at liberty to choose which of the consequences I must face.
Great men are almost always bad men. - John Dalberg-Acton
History is mostly, it seems to me, a lesson in proportions. You think times are tough? You think you are beset by bad luck? Others have had it worse. Others have gone through worse. Others have triumphed over many more difficult obstacles. - David Mccullough
Many who are self-taught far excel the doctors, masters, and bachelors of the most renowned universities. - Ludwig von Mises
Two kinds of fools - those who take religion literally, and those who think it has no value. - Naval Ravikant
Men's greatest weakness is their facade of strength, and women's greatest strength is their facade of weakness. - Warren Farrell
Skilled manipulators always pretend they are, or were, the victim. - Adelyn Birch
The existential vacuum [not knowing what to do in life] manifests itself mainly as boredom. - Viktor Frankl
For too many people, especially in the media, what is right and wrong, true or false, depends on who it helps or hurts politically. Too many media people who are supposed to be reporters act as if they are combatants in political wars. - Thomas Sowell
“You think your pain is so unique. And then you read.” - James Baldwin
Knowing without acting is no better than not knowing at all.
Just because it's not your fault doesn't mean it's not your responsibility. - Shane Parrish
All tyranny begins with the desire to coerce others for the greater good. - Naval Ravikant
The magic pill everyone seeks is called good habits.
If you can’t write it, you can’t teach it, and if you can’t teach it, you don't understand it. - David Perell
Worries often say more about the worrier than about the world. - John Armstrong
Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed. - Ray Bradbury
The previous two decades have shown us that even when completely free, people will feign oppression to avoid responsibility. - Ian Greer
Many spiritual traditions recognize that when the dark one appears he is most beautiful, most wonderful, and most engaging. The truth only comes out later.
The fundamental insecurity - most people need faith in something - religion, government, academia. Few are comfortable with decentralized systems. - Naval Ravikant
99% of the time, the correct answer is, "You're right, I agree completely." Remember, they think they're smarter than you and that they know everything.
It’s better to invent a job than to get a job.
It's impossible to never offend anyone, simply because some people will always seek reasons to get offended as a diversion from their reality.
Help yourself, then your family, then your friends, then society, then you are wealthy.
When you become an entrepreneur, advice from non-entrepreneurs is irrelevant. - Sam Ovens
Supposedly, if you are uncompromising or intolerant with BS you lose friends. But you will also make friends, better friends. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I'm not right-wing or left-wing, I'm the whole chicken.
Lack of ambition is often lack of self-confidence. You suddenly want to achieve more when you think you can.
You could try to pound your head against the wall and think of original ideas or you can cheat by reading them in books. - Patrick Collison
Every king has slaves in his ancestry.
Money can be converted into goods or freedom. The more goods you buy the less units of freedom remain.
Asymmetric opportunities: Invest in startups. Start a company. Create a book, podcast or video. Create a (software) product. Go on many first dates. Go to a cocktail party. Read a Lindy (old) book. Move to a big city. Buy Bitcoin. Tweet. - Naval Ravikant
The secret of a happy life. Step 1: Become someone smart who doesn't take everything personally. Step 2: Surround yourself with other such people.
If you're perfectly qualified to do something, you've already outgrown it.
Being underestimated is a gift. You don’t have to find motivation. - James Clear
A simple rule that guides many of my business decisions: I want to accumulate assets, not responsibilities. - James Clear
It is amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic. - Thomas Sowell
The biggest risk is taking no risk. - Ian Greer
I’ve found that having a passion for something, and cutting expenses, goes hand-in-hand. The first naturally leads to the second. - Lyn Alden
The quality of your habits is the stability of your mental health.
The longer we wait to deal with reality the bigger the price. - Shane Parrish
Dream job is an oxymoron.
Innovation per year is what matters. - Elon Musk
If it costs you health, it’s not worth it.
The universe rewards us for understanding it and punishes us for not understanding it. When we understand the universe, our plans work and we feel good. Conversely, if we try to fly by jumping off a cliff and flapping our arms, the universe will kill us. - Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart
A child who is shunned by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth. - African proverb.
The greatest threat to a man’s potential is never breaking the rules, because most of the time, they’re bullshit.
Nature does not ask your permission, she has nothing to do with your wishes, and whether you like her laws or dislike them, you are bound to accept her as she is, and consequently all her conclusions. - Fyodor Dostoevsky
If you want to reach a large audience, appeal to idiots. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Maturity is no longer justifying your character with events from your past.
You can ignore reality but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.
People look at you strange, say you changed. Like you worked this hard just to stay the same. - Jay Z
Don't be afraid to start over again. This time you're not starting from scratch, you're starting from experience.
A dog with two owners dies of hunger.
We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off. - Chuck Palahniuk
Maturity is knowing healing does not mean reconnecting with those who hurt you.
When you know nothing matters, the universe is yours. - Rick Sanchez
Wisdom is ambivalence. - Ian Greer
Books are like maps. Even the most high quality maps cannot substitute for exploring a location. But they can be useful tools. Books can help you plan out your life but you need to experience to get a full understanding.
Every investor is making a bet on the future. It’s only called speculation when you disagree with someone else’s bet or time horizon. - Morgan Housel
When you refuse to make sacrifices, the things that matter to you become the sacrifice. - Sam Ovens
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. - Ronald Reagan
The bronze medalist is often happier than the silver medalist because the bronze medalist is grateful they were not 4th but the silver medalist can only focus on not getting first.
Read more books than average and you'll be more successful than average.
Before you heal someone, ask him if he is willing to give up the things that made him sick. - Hippocrates
An armed society is a polite society. - R.A. Heinlein
Any halfway-clever devil would decorate the highway to hell as beautifully as possible. - Criss Jami
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