A Loosely Curated, but Chaotic Set of Quotes, Thoughts, and Ideas
20 Apr 2019
Reading time ~27 minutes
Introduction
For at least 4 years now, I’ve been keeping track of this curated list (in the loosest sense possible), of quotes, thoughts, and ideas that had enough impact on me to write them down. Now I’ve decided I want to share them with others. By no means, would I constitute all of these as absolutely true, and in some cases they contradict each other. Rather, they were impactful enough to me to the point where I decided I wanted to store them for later, so I could share them. There’s not much order or coherence to them other than I collected them. Hopefully at least one makes you question the world in a different way which is the whole reason I first started this project.
Quotes
“Being kind is fundamentally about taking responsibility for your impact on the people around you. It requires you be mindful of their feelings and considerate of the way your presence affects them.”
“A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.”
“How can you achieve your ten-year plan in the next six months?”
“Just because history repeats itself doesn’t mean that we’re doomed to make the same mistakes. Not as long as people are willing to fight for something better.”
“If we never push people to change, then the people never will.”
“First a company is ran by engineers, then a company is ran by accountants, and finally a company is ran by lawyers.”
“Expect the best outcome, but understand the worst outcome may still come and you can deal with it if it does.”
“Don’t complain to others about your problems, half of them don’t care and the other half are glad you have them.”
“My Greatest fear is that I may never accomplish my dreams to impact the world in a profoundly positive way… this is why I chose to work everyday.”
“It is often true that the greatest ideas come from the humblest of minds.”
“If you continue to compete with others, you become bitter, but if you continuously compete with yourself, you become better.”
“We live in a world full of systems. If you’re perceptive enough you’ll begin to notice their patterns.”
“Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Everybody wants to get rich, but no one wants to pay the price.”
“Innovation is not a duty to the customer, it is a duty to the industry.”
“I know nothing. I am confident knowing nothing. The world is mine to explore. So let’s begin now.”
“If you’re not afraid of death then you’re not really living, you’re only existing.”
“If you’re your own biggest critic and can remain positive, it’s much easier to take criticism from others and use it to fuel your growth.”
“Being able to grasp concepts quickly is an excellent trait of a leader because if you surround yourself with many experts it’s as if you’re able to be an expert in every field to make educated decisions quickly.”
“Leaders must be the most empathetic person in the room at all times.”
“Fear is a powerful emotion. Invoke it only when necessary.”
“I’m happy right now in a very twisted way. It’s twisted because although I feel sad, I finally feel something and that makes me feel happy.”
“When conditions are good, you feel great, motivated and everything is going your way, it is easy to keep going. Everyone can do it. But…what do you do when things turn around and you are having a really terrible day? That is when it matters most, your decisions during those moment separate the winners from the losers. Learn to endure during difficult times. When you feel like giving up but you keep going, this is when you are separating yourself from your old self. This is when you are growing. If you want to be extraordinary, don’t do what everyone else does during difficult times.”
“Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present.”
“Life is spent preparing for the next moment, but there are some moments that can’t be prepared for, those are the human moments. These are the moments when you have to accept it, take a deep breath, and take the leap of faith.”
“Every person has a reason they are valuable, make it your goal to find that reason and focus on why that value is important to them. This is the first step towards friendship.”
“If you want to spend 30 minutes bragging about yourself call your parents or your spouse cause the rest of us don’t have that kind of time to invest.”
“I may not be at peace with myself, but I can at least be at peace with the people who surround me because they will need my help and I need theirs.”
“Calm, confident, willing to learn, willing to get stuck in.”
“Doesn’t have much of an ego, can stand out but doesn’t strive to do so.”
“Can argue without being insulting, can concede points but also defend them.”
“Has independence and critical thinking skills.”
“Being a human is so complex. Therefore, it is impossible to define ourselves in a paragraph, or a few phrases, or a single word. Being human means we are dynamic; sometimes we are sad, other times we are happy; Some days are great, others will be worse; this is the nature of what it means to be human. This is not a negative thing. It’s how existence works, kind of like gravity. So if you want to summarize humans into categories for simplisticness, go for it. However, you’re not actually defining a human. Instead you’re defining a human captured to a single point in time from a single perspective.”
“Enduring pain for those we care about is what life is all about.”
“The problem is not the problem. The problem is my attitude about the problem. Best part about this is, I can control my attitude, but I can’t control the problem.”
“If you want to change something, don’t hand out your resources. Use your resources to change policy.”
“Ships don’t sink because of the water around them; ships sink because the water that’s in them. Don’t let what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.”
“I wish to create the best me possible, while surrounding myself with wonderful people, help others in a positive way, and leave a positive impact on the world.”
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
“Wise men learn more from fools, than fools from the wise.”
“Success is having the ability to make others successful and using it to help others do the same. If someone doesn’t want to spread their success, don’t grant them with the power of its glory.”
“Boosting our self-compassion is more effective than boosting our self-esteem. To boost our self-compassion we must treat ourselves like our own best friend.”
“Chaos is a series of events colliding which appear at random. However, no event is truly random due to the cause and effect relationship.”
“if you’re looking for a manager, find somebody that’s intelligent, energetic, and has integrity. If you they don’t have the last, be sure they don’t have the first two. If you have somebody who lacks integrity, you want them to be dumb and lazy.”
“True confidence is being alright with who you are even if it doesn’t please those around you.”
“I will accomplish my goals and will continue on a path to success. I do not have to get there in a day, but I should work towards them as often as possible.”
“Live for today, look forward to tomorrow, and don’t forget to smile 😀 .”
“Use your past to determine your present to improve your future.”
” you can tell whether a man is clever by his answers and you can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.”
” If you don’t like how the table is set… then turn the table over.”
“A thought can become a memory once it is shared with others.”
“A combination of infinite waves and infinite nodes, some infinitely large and some infinitely small, are what create our infinite Universe.”
“I am the only person who can define what perfect is for me.”
“Almost every opinion is based upon truth. The tricky part is finding how every opinion meshes together to form truth.”
“If you think something is cool because everyone else does, are you really thinking or are you allowing everyone else to do the thinking for you?”
“Technology grows exponentially, not linearly.”
“Change your environment to change your thought process when trying to solve a new problem. It will help to see things in a new perspective.”
“I cannot force change upon another person. I can only offer suggestions on how a person can change themselves and wait and see what happens.”
“In the past I could never find reason to believe the truth. Now, I use truth to believe my reasoning.”
“When people say don’t listen to what others think, there is an implied fallacy that no one else’s opinion except your own matters. In reality what they mean is pick and choose who’s opinion matters to you while following your own inner guidance as well.”
“If you don’t value your time, respect yourself, and expect your best; others won’t value your time, respect you, or give their best to you.”
“talent is thousands of hours of hard work trapped in a single moment.”
“execution and education can change the results of a theory.”
“I accept all that is. All is well. I trust the divine order. I cherish all that I have and all that I am.”
“All you can do is plant the idea inside the person and wait to see if it will grow.”
“Question your internal dialog it is a perspective too. It can be wrong.”
“Feelings change, the truth doesn’t.”
“Decisions based on emotion aren’t decisions at all, they are instincts, which can be of value. The rational and irrational compliment each other, individually they’re far less powerful.”
“If I want another person’s opinion on a topic, it’s best to just ask for it than to debate them for it. Even if I get less out of them in the short term, I’ll get more out of them in the long term.”
“When you’re listening questions should arise, when you’re waiting to respond answers and comments will arise.”
“If you expect something specific to happen, it rarely ever will.”
“If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
“The best revenge is to be unlike your enemy.”
A seed can only grow by allowing the nutrients to break through it’s shell.”
“The only thing that matters in this world are the rules and the people who make them.”
“Work for improvement, not for perfection.”
“Never assume something is obvious to another person, not everyone has experienced and learned the same things as you.”
“A creative mind is dependent on the ability to let your mind run free in your imagination. However, the mind must also be pushed back to reality when you have realized the idea is destructive, harmful to you or others, or is ready to be pursued. This is the essence of a balanced mind and a balanced being while pursuing your creative talents to the fullest.”
“honesty means telling the truth when asked, but does not constitute sharing every card in your hand.”
“The only thing certain about the future is that it can become anything you imagine; you must want it and work for it though.”
“Never force anyone to get on the same page as you simply because that’s what you want.”
“Being a leader isn’t about power—it’s about change, improvement, and growth.”
“The key to happiness is being content with what you have, while continuing to help others and allowing yourself time to grow.”
“there are two requirements to be the greatest you can be, Explain your unexplained and achieve your unachievable.”
“Don’t tell the world about your idea and ask for comment, your idea then is dependent on your execution to describe rather than your execution to produce. Instead, produce a product and ask what they don’t like.”
“We’re more interested in winning the argument, than solving the problem.”
“My actions need only to be in agreement with my own personal bounds.”
“Sometimes it’s the people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine.”
“Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good. Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes… Hollow?”
“knowledge is useless unless you do something with it.”
“Knowledge isn’t power. Knowledge is only potential power.”
“everyone has misery, but it’s not a comparison of who has the most or the least. Rather, it’s the balance we choose between our misery and happiness that gives us our substance in life to continue wanting more.”
“Intelligence is not finding the right answer, it’s asking the right questions.”
“Don’t argue to be right or wrong, argue to question existence and truth.”
“Life is like a giant game of connect the dots, what makes it difficult is the dots aren’t numbered so you can create your own image.”
“credit for a thought or idea is absurd. The notion that an idea can be made better or worse due to who said it goes against all validity of an idea. The importance of an idea is not who said it; Rather the importance of an idea is the truth in the message.”
“Human consciousness is a by-product of the environment it is surrounded by”
“they’re genius-like creators and genius-like articulators, but a true genius can articulate their creation.”
“the distinction between living and nonliving matter is the ability to manipulate energy.”
“Repetition creates an illusion of truth.”
“negotiation is about finding a solution to your counterpart’s problem that makes you better off than you would have been had you not negotiated”
“The internet is just an automated Telegraph with all the middle men cut out.”
“To define life in the simplest forms, it’s matter capable of moving itself.”
“an excuse is a euphemism for a weak rationalization.”
“Why is it socially acceptable for a person to ask a stranger the score of the local sports team, but considered unorthodox to ask the same person what their purpose in life is?”
“Power is most just when diversified.”
“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”
“nothing is more powerful than belief.”
“failure is knowledge.”
“overthinking is a way of suggesting thinking is a bad thing, which is a measure of control.”
“change your mindset and you will change your life.”
“If you have to resort to violence, you haven’t thought long and hard enough.”
“If you can’t dream it you can’t do it. I always dream big and chase it forever, because even if I miss I’ll still end up somewhere totally dope at some point.”
“happiness exists when you realize that you would do the same things as you do in life now as you would if money didn’t exist.”
“why do we limit ourselves to inside-the-box thinking when there is an entire universe to be explored?”
“The best gift you can give to someone is your time because you can never get it back.”
“Ideas typically don’t come only from one person, they are ment to be a collection of contributions from many people.”
“True confidence is believing you’re correct, but not knowing with certainty. False confidence is declaring your right in hopes of validation. Seek True confidence if you wish to grow.”
“if you feel the need to be rude or condescending, ask a question first. If they don’t see the mistake you see, they likely won’t so don’t bother continuing.”
“possession is an ignorant mindset brought out by greed, where greed is a product of money.”
“ignorance is only defeated by education, and to be educated we must question. Therefore, ignorant questions are beneficial.”
“those who want to be the best work the smartest and the hardest.”
“its not gonna be fun, but it needs to be done if you want to be the one.”
“the people who ask their own questions and answer with their unique perspective, are the people with the most interesting minds.”
“Can we create a society with a higher standard of living (enjoyable, peaceful, educated, interconnected, efficient, sustainable, diverse, equal) without money?”
“no one can save anybody, only we can save ourselves. It usually requires the help of others though.”
“life just gives you events; it’s your choice what you make of them.”
“Some people deal with more events though. That’s because there being prepared for bigger events.”
“revenge and justice are not the same thing.”
“it’s not whether you can or can’t, it’s whether you will or won’t.”
“life is like a game of chess, envision your end game and above all else; protect your King.”
“offer less than you wish so that you don’t offer more than you can provide.”
“Wealth is in the mind not in the pocket.”
“if you want to control the educated, have them chase the future.”
“education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
“success may take one day or ten years but enjoy the process the entire way.”
“in our quest to become tolerant towards everything, we became intolerant towards everything.”
“relax, let go.”
“speak about your actions and act how you believe, but do not speak about your beliefs.”
“clear your mind of questions.” - Yoda
“Emotions are your perception filters. if you focus on the positive emotions, you’ll filter out the negative emotions. There will be negative emotions that make it through your filter though. They must be managed and released or they’ll consume you.”
“The details that seem mundane are the details that make you successful.”
“learn to make your escape from reality something that is beneficial to you and success will come easier.”
“when I’m all alone my only challenge is the unknown.”
“we all come into this world crying and leave this world silently, so say what you can loudly while you can.”
“rules without a relationship leads to rebellion.”-Dabo Sweeny
“Stop playing politics, start making history.”
“The difference between dreams and success is action.”
“When your only tool is a hammer, all of your problems begin to look like nails.”
“don’t ask yourself what occupation you want to hold in your life, ask yourself what problems you wish to solve in your life.”
“Embrace your inner weirdness, it’s what makes you unique and this world truly awesome.”
“success turns to guilt when you trade profit for ethics.”
Depression is the number one workout for your mental will.”
“you have to be odd to be number one.” Dr. Seuss
“Information exchange is a form of nonviolent war.”
“the only thing you should hoard is knowledge.”
“the greatest victor does what they came to do and is gone before the battle ever begins.”
“crowd out your failures with all your success. Don’t hide them.”
“I try to connect deeply with others, but my deep is too deep for them. So I find myself just floating on the surface the whole time.”
“Progress… That’s all that matters.”
“It’s not the amount of power that matters… It’s what you do with your power that matters.”
“Focus on succeeding through being sincere, reliable, and hardworking rather than good-looking, talented, or smart.”
” Being kind to kind people is easy. If you want a challenge, be kind to mean people. This is how you will grow as a person and gain patience in the process.”
“You don’t get to state your opinion and then complain about how people react to your opinion.”
“The most beautiful ideas are the ones that speak volumes in the fewest amount of words.”
“women are like the sun, it’s alright to glance, but it’s dangerous to stare.”
“4 keys to happiness: God is nothing to fear, Death is nothing to worry about, it is easy to acquire the good things in life, and it is easy to endure the terrible things in life.”
“If death didn’t exist, progress would never occur because we would put everything off until tomorrow.”
“If our time were infinite, our progress would be stagnant.”
“Let stupid people be stupid, you can’t educate them in one conversation.”
“Get used to doing what you hate, it will better you in someway and you won a mental battle too.”
“Dream is only a dream unless work follows it.”
“Work silent, act loud.”
“There’s 3 types of people: those that saw what happened, those that heard what happened, and those that made it happen. Which one are you?”
“Changing human behavior is one of the most difficult things. Don’t try to learn to change people’s behavior, rather learn to understand people’s behavior.”
“The trick to getting any girl is to show interest in finding out who they are. It is not to show interest in having sex with them.”
“Don’t try to be the all time best, just try to be your best and keep working to become better.”
“Don’t be impressed by money, titles, degrees or networks. Be impressed by generosity, integrity, humility, and applied knowledge.”
“Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.”
“How can that be $30,000… It took you 30 seconds. It took me 30 years of practice to be able to do that in 30 seconds, that is how I can charge that much.”
I am infinitely small when compared to the universe yet I feel enlightened when compared to man. I must find balance between these two to find truth that is understandable to man.”
“don’t search for perfection, search for what’s good enough.”
“the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
“If they don’t satisfy you either intellectually or emotionally they probably are not worth the time it will take to change that.”
“Focus on collecting knowledge any time you can, then disturbute according to what is asked of you.”
“My intuition is never right or wrong. It is my teacher and it will guide me along my path.
“In a world without privacy there’s only tyranny.”
“Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Empathy)/Apparent Self-Interest.”
“Winning isn’t the only important aspect of winning. How you win matters more.”
“Consistentcy is the fastest way to gain trust.”
“seek first to understand, then seek to be understood.”
“Most days feel like I’m caught in an information war between Tumblr and 4Chan where memes are bombs and outrage is the new propaganda.”
“The most social are the most successful.”
“Those who socialize best in the Halls of power are the ones succeed most often.” “It is nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
“A good historian can find precedent for everything, but a even better historian knows when these precedents cloud the big picture.”
“Am I pretty sure that I’ll be moving in the right direction, with only modest corrections needed in the future, if I make this decision?”
“Never ask a lawyer if doing something would be safe, for the answer is always no. Instead ask what is the safest way to do it and what risks would remain.”
“There is a difference between the solution being wrong, and the solution being one you wouldn’t pick.”
“Be an entrepreneur, not a wantreprenuer. a wantrepreneur is someone that has ideas but just doesn’t execute.”
“What can I do to make you feel most safe?”
“Do not try to create and analyze at the same time. They are different processes.”
“90% of maturity is getting over the fear of hard work.”
“Levels of knowledge:”
- Reading about it
- Thinking about it
- Writing about it
- Explaining it to an adult
- Explaining it to a 5-year-old kid
“The majority of people aren’t assholes, but the ones who are find a way of making it obvious they are an asshole.”
“No one attempts the impossible, without being motivated by something bigger than themselves. Even if that something is a someone.”
“Today I will be impeccable with my word, I will not take anything personally, I will not make any assumptions, and I am going to do my best. If I fail at these four agreements today, that is ok because I tried my best. Tomorrow I will start over, and try again until these agreements become a habit of my life.”
“Artificial Intelligence shouldn’t be considered to possess a mind until it can define it’s own purpose. Until then it is only an advanced logic machine.”
“If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.”
“If you intend to lead a group of people, you must first listen to what they desire.”
“When you argue both people lose. When you discuss both people win because both people get a broader understanding.”
“Be like a bottle of water, not like a bottle of pop. This is to mean that when shaken up you can handle the pressure.”
“Fake it til you make it is a lie. Defining “making it” is impossible and subjective. Instead just ignore the external pressure to conform and get weird.”
“you don’t get rich by the money you make. You get rich by the money you don’t spend.”
“It’s good to have dreams, just don’t let them be fantasies.”
“It’s the quality, not quantity, of what you say.”
“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.”
“The best teacher in life is failure.”
“Capitalism will remain the optimal economic model until scarcity can be defeated.”
“Enabling people to do good work and give them the freedom to make their own decisions is the best way to run a company. Trust that they will do it correctly, but inspect and transparently audit to verify.”
“The quality of success shouldn’t be measured by the feasibility of the end goal, but rather by the quality of the journey along the way.”
“if you aren’t inclined to act in a certain direction when making a decision then you should seek out more information.”
“Family is not determined by who you were born to, but rather by who cares about you the most.”
“Never mistake a single battle for an entire war.”
“The purpose of a business is to create a customer.”
“They’re two things to look for in a good friend. Are they genuine and honest? Are they competent and competitive?”
“Stress should be viewed as a challenge not as a threat.”
“Be interested, not interesting.”
“There is no reason to tell people that I am smart. As long as I am my true self, they will figure it out. I shall have faith in all of humanities intelligence.”
“And that is how world’s turn and bridges burn.”
“Everyone doesn’t mind an authoritarian regime if the regime represents their views.”
“almost never does one person change the world. Almost always one person inspires the masses to change.”
“In life it is always more beneficial to be the first to extend the gesture of kindness and helpfulness. This includes making the interaction as easy as possible for the other person and being most flexible.”
“God watched the holocaust happen, what makes you think he’s going to interfere with your life and give you what you ask for?”
“True friends say good things behind your back and bad things to your face.”
“Don’t worry about controlling your emotions. Control your actions.”
“Don’t be ashamed of a feeling, but be ashamed if you act like an ass because of a feeling.”
“Always let her decide if she’s out of your league.”
“Worrying is a waste of your imagination.”
“If a detail doesn’t invoke an emotion in a story, it doesn’t need to be added.”
“Trust doesn’t end when the person who trusts you isn’t watching.”
“If one were to assume they are an expert on a subject it is to assume they have acquired enough knowledge to make an informed decision on a subject. An informed decision assumes that you have enough knowledge to make a decision, but not necessarily all informated necessary. Therefore, leaving the opportunity for an expert to be wrong or an expert to continue to learn, because it should be assumed that it is impossible to know all things about any subject.”
“Is knowledge infinitely expansive or finitely expansive? How would one prove this?”
“Success isn’t owned, it’s leased, and rent is due every day. Did you pay your rent towards success today?”
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
“Life exists because of the phenomenon of delayed entropy of energy and it’s weird properties.”
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
“Preference most commonly comes from childhood indoctrination.”
“It’s not the drugs that make a drug addict. It’s the need to escape reality.”
“I like being alone. I have control over my own space. Therefore, to win me over, your presence has to be better than my solitude. You’re not competing with another person, you are competing with my comfort zone.”
“The key to life is asking how can I help?”
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“It’s better to find what customers want and offer it in the best way possible than to offer a perfect revolutionary product that no one wants.”
“The future is the only thing worth planning for.”
“Actions speak louder than words, but your words can still make a huge impact.”
“Don’t dwell on regret. Extract the lessons and move on. The only way to lose is to stop moving.”
“One does not make it into the halls of power without making a few friends and likely more enemies along the way.”
“Times change and people change.”
“It is almost always better to adapt to problems encountered with others rather than to impose your will upon them.”
“The greatest heros of War are the humans who prevent it from ever happening.”
“It is not the strongest man, the most attractive woman, nor the most intelligent human who changes the minds of the masses. Rather it is the most convincing and persuasive human who changes the world.”
“War means that innocent people die.”
“Intent is more important than intelligence.”
“young men, when they first get the taste of philosophy in their mouths, argue for amusement, and are always contradicting and refuting… like puppy-dogs who delight to tear and pull at all who come near them.”
“You never do it alone.”
“Failure is never the destination.”
“Everyone thinks to change the world, but no one thinks to change themselves.”
“Pain is life, but you can choose what type. Either the pain on the road to success. Or the pain of being haunted with regret.”
Disclaimer
Some of these are my own ideas, some are thoughts heavily influenced by others ideas, and some are direct quotes that I found impactful. In such a case, I make no intent to monetize these or claims of ownership to these ideas. Rather, I consider them ideas and information in the most fluid sense that are intended to be shared. If you have a copyright on one of these, can prove a copyright violation, and do not wish for it to be included I would be happy to remove it from this page. I don’t want to share ideas that are “owned” anyways. To do so contact me via one of the messaging links provided at the landing page of this domain.