There seems to be a general, though unconscious conspiracy existing, against each other’s individuality and manhood. We discourage self-reliance, and demand conformity. Each must see with others’ eyes, and think through others’ minds. We are idolaters upwards. Pinned down and held back by insurance and weakness, we are afraid of standing alone, or of thinking and acting for ourselves. Conventionalism rules all. We fear stepping out into the free air of independent thought and action. We refuse to plant ourselves upon our instincts, and to vindicate our spiritual freedom. We are content to bear others’ fruit, not our own.
— Samuel Smiles, Thrift, London 1875
Does history record any case in which the majority was right?
— Robert A. Heinlein
If you don’t know it’s impossible, it’s easier to do. And because nobody’s done it before, they haven’t made up rules to stop anyone doing that particular thing again.
— Neil Gaiman
Love is about bottomless empathy, born out of the heart’s revelation that another person is every bit as real as you are. To love a specific person, and to identify with his or her struggles and joys as if they were your own, you have to surrender some of your self.
— Jonathan Franzen
And when a great adventure’s offered you—you don’t refuse it, that’s all.
— Amelia Earhart
We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.
— Jim Rohn
If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the when when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cried at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.
— Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.
— Siddhārtha Gautama
Complaining is a sign that someone isn’t willing to risk moving on a changeable situation, or won’t consider the immutable circumstance in his or her plans. This is a temporary and hollow form of self validation.
— David Allen from his book Getting Things Done
