Ryan Holiday Quotes

“Don’t waste a second looking back at your expectations. Face forward, and face it with a smug little grin.”

“If you want momentum, you’ll have to create it yourself, right now, by getting up and getting started.”

“No one is asking you to look at the world through rose-colored glasses.”

“No thank you, I can’t afford to panic.”

“The great law of nature is that it never stops. There is no end.”

“The path of least resistance is a terrible teacher.”

“The world might call you a pessimist. Who cares? It’s far better to seem like a downer than to be blindsided or caught off guard.”

“We must be willing to roll the dice and lose. Prepare, at the end of the day, for none of it to work.”

“You only control the effort, not the results.”

“Courage is honest commitment to noble ideals. The opposite of courage is not, as some argue, being afraid. It’s apathy. It’s disenchantment. It’s despair. It’s throwing up your hands and saying, What’s the point anyway?”

“Don’t worry about whether things will be hard. Because they will be. Instead, focus on the fact that these things will help you. This is why you needn’t fear them.”

“It doesn’t matter who or how many come at you, you have to be you. Confidently. Authentically. Bravely.”

“It has been said that a Stoic is someone who says 'F*ck you' to fate. That’s right. They resist. They fight. They will not be made to do the wrong thing. Especially under pressure.”

“One man with courage makes a majority.”

“The belief that an individual can make a difference is the first step. The next is understanding that you can be that person.”

“There is nothing worth doing that is not scary. There is no one who has achieved greatness without wrestling with their own doubts, anxieties, limitations, and demons.”

“Today, each of us receives our own call. To service. To take a risk. To challenge the status quo. To run toward while others run away. To rise above our station. To do what people say is impossible.”

“You just learn to stop thinking about what they think. You’ll never do original work if you can’t.”

“Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work. It means you’re the least important person in the room — until you change that with results.”

“Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.”

“Most successful people are people you’ve never heard of. They want it that way. It keeps them sober. It helps them do their jobs.”

“That’s what is so insidious about talk. Anyone can talk about himself or herself. Even a child knows how to gossip and chatter. Most people are decent at hype and sales. So what is scarce and rare? Silence. The ability to deliberately keep yourself out of the conversation and subsist without its validation. Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong.”

“The pretense of knowledge is our most dangerous vice, because it prevents us from getting any better.”

“Those who have subdued their ego understand that it doesn’t degrade you when others treat you poorly; it degrades them.”

“Work is finding yourself alone at the track when the weather kept everyone else indoors. Work is pushing through the pain and crappy first drafts and prototypes. It is ignoring whatever plaudits others are getting, and more importantly, ignoring whatever plaudits you may be getting. Because there is work to be done. Work doesn’t want to be good. It is made so, despite the headwind.”

“You’re not as good as you think. You don’t have it all figured out. Stay focused. Do better.”

“Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of — that’s the metric to measure yourself against. Your standards are. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be *ssholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.”

“Be present. And if you’ve had trouble with this in the past? That’s okay. That’s the nice thing about the present. It keeps showing up to give you a second chance.”

“It takes real work to grasp what is invisible to just about everyone else.”

“Remember, there’s no greatness in the future. Or clarity. Or insight. Or happiness. Or peace. There is only this moment.”