I'm Josh Kaufman. I'm an independent business educator, author, researcher, photographer, veggie burrito connoisseur, and quote enthusiast.
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M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
“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.
Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. I know about this moaning because I have done my share.
Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Do we want to teach our children to solve them?
Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems.”
Hat tip to Get Rich Slowly, a fantastic personal finance blog, for the quote.
This entry was written by , posted on October 31, 2006 at 3:56 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Vartan Gregorian, former President of Brown University:
“Nobody goes through life without encountering obstacles, disappointments, and problems. Nobody can keep from making mistakes or taking a wrong turn. Nobody can escape illness or avoid the specter of failure. Let me point out that coping with success is easy. How you deal with adversity, with failure, and with setbacks will reveal your true character. How nimble you are about getting back on your feet after some large or small disaster or defeat will help you to determine just how far those feet of yours will take you in the world.”
Hat tip to Diego at Metacool for the quote.
This entry was written by , posted on October 23, 2006 at 7:17 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Arnold J. Toynbee, world historian and author of A Study of History, the longest written work in the English language:
“Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: first, an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm, and second, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice.”
Hat tip to Alexander the “Chief Happiness Officer” at Happy at Work for the quote.
This entry was written by , posted on at 2:18 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
William Henry Channing, American writer and philosopher:
“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard, think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common – this is my symphony.”
This entry was written by , posted on October 21, 2006 at 7:51 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Douglas Pagels
“There are some things that you wouldn’t improve upon, even if you could. Things that can’t be improved on, because they are just about as exquisite as anything gets. Things that appeal to our senses and sensibilities – like a perfect moment, a piece of music, a look, a creation – that we rely on to take us beyond standards. Things that soar above the level best.
These are the things we call ‘classics’. They bring a quiet magnificence into our homes and hearts. They often come from a time when people’s visions are clearer, when they can see the way through to truths about how we could live, and what we could achieve, if we combined equal parts wisdom, integrity, purpose, and love. Classics aren’t always lofty and unattainable; most of them are easily within our reach. And they teach us that though we can’t always add to the quantity of our lives, we can do wondrous things about their quality.”
This entry was written by , posted on at 7:43 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Étienne Pivert de Senancour, French writer:
“Man is perishable. That may be; but let us perish resisting, and, if nothingness is what awaits us, let us not act in such a way that it would be a just fate.”
James March, versatile Stanford business professor and polymath:
“In the end, you know, we are very minor blips in a cosmic story. Aspirations for importance or significance are the illusions of the ignorant. All our hopes are minor, except to us; but some things matter because we choose to make them matter. What might make a difference to us, I think, is whether in our tiny roles, in our brief time, we inhabit life gently and add more beauty than ugliness.”
Hat tip to Tom Ehrenfeld at 800-CEO-READ for the fantastic HBS article on James March that contains these quotes.
This entry was written by , posted on October 19, 2006 at 10:51 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher:
“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.”
G. H. Hardy, mathematician:
“It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.”
Terry Pratchett, fantasy author:
“I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.”
William Shakespeare, bard and poet:
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
Henry Ford, inventor of the assembly line and modern mass production:
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”
James Allen, author of As You Think:
“Mind is the master power that molds and makes,
And we are Mind, and evermore we take
The tool of thought, and shaping what we will,
Bring forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills.
We think in secret, and it comes to pass -
Our world is but our looking glass.”
This entry was written by , posted on October 18, 2006 at 7:11 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Robert A. Heinlein, Hugo award-winning science fiction writier and author of Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Blaise Pascal, mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher:
“Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.”
Polykarp Kusch, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1955 for contributions to quantum electrodynamics:
“I feel, sometimes, as the renaissance man must have felt in finding new riches at every point and in the certainty that unexplored areas of knowledge and experience await at every turn.”
Dennis Flanagan, editor of Scientific American for 37 years:
“In an age of specialization people are proud to be able to do one thing well, but if that is all they know about, they are missing out on much else life has to offer… I like the idea of being a Renaissance hack. If tombstones were still in style, I would want to have the two words chiseled right under my name.”
This entry was written by , posted on at 2:50 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
“If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research!”
Donald Rumsfeld, former US Secretary of Defense:
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don’t know we don’t know.”
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
This entry was written by , posted on October 16, 2006 at 8:35 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, in a graduation address at Stanford in 2005:
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Hat tip to Steve Olson for reminding me of this quote.
This entry was written by , posted on at 7:58 pm, filed under Quotes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.