Ryan Holiday Quotes Page 2

“Routine, done for long enough and done sincerely enough, becomes more than routine. It becomes ritual — it becomes sanctified and holy.”

“Stillness is what aims the archer’s arrow. It inspires new ideas. It sharpens perspective and illuminates connections.”

“The gift of free will is that in this life we can choose to be good or we can choose to be bad. We can choose what standards to hold ourselves to and what we will regard as important, honorable, and admirable. The choices we make in that regard determine whether we will experience peace or not.”

“The less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what’s in front of us.”

“This is what the best journals look like. They aren’t for the reader. They are for the writer. To slow the mind down. To wage peace with oneself.”

“A degree on a wall means you're educated as much as shoes on your feet mean you're walking.”

“Control your perceptions.
Direct your actions properly.
Willingly accept what's outside your control.”

“Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.”

“It’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit. To know you want to quit but to plant your feet and keep inching closer until you take the impenetrable fortress you’ve decided to lay siege to in your own life — that’s persistence.”

“The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”

“The only guarantee, ever, is that things will go wrong. The only thing we can use to mitigate this is anticipation. Because the only variable we control completely is ourselves.”

“There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.”

“Think progress, not perfection.”

“We forget: In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given.”

“Where the head goes, the body follow. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.”

“Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing and herever we are going, we owe it to ourselves, to our art, to the world to do it well.”

“Conning the conmen is one of life’s most satisfying pleasures.”

“Humiliation should not be suppressed. It should be monetized.”

“In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we neither seek nor want honesty or reality. Reality is complicated. Reality is boring. We are incapable or unwilling to handle its confusion.”

“Publicity does not come easily, profits do not come easily, and knowledge does not come easily.”

“The most powerful predictor of what spreads online is anger.”

“The reason the knives are so sharp online is because the pie is so small.”

“We’re a country governed by public opinion, and public opinion is largely governed by the press, so isn’t it critical to understand what governs the press?”

“What is known can't jerk us around unwittingly. Before anything can be resolved, the implicit must be made into the explicit.”

“When intelligent people read, they ask themselves a simple question: What do I plan to do with this information?”

“5 Stoic lessons from Seneca:

1. We suffer more in imagination than in reality
2. Associate only with people who improve you
3. The greatest remedy for anger is delay
4. Value your time more than your possessions
5. Death is not in the distant future. We are dying every day”

“All we need in life now at this very moment (according to Marcus Aurelius):

1. Objective judgement
2. Unselfish action
3. Willing acceptance”

“Be original. Be yourself. To be anything else is to be a coward.”

“Build a life that you don’t need to escape from.”

“Don't let your progress become pride.”