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- 12 Quotes I Can't Stop Thinking About
12 Quotes I Can't Stop Thinking About
A collection of quotes to help you lead, live, and work better.
Chase Arbeiter
October 17, 2023
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About ten years ago, I started collecting quotes that I found useful and worth saving.
As Morgan Housel recently wrote, "One good line is infinitely more powerful than a few clumsy paragraphs." I couldn't agree more.
I dig through these quotes when I'm looking for inspiration or struggling with something specific in my life. Building a reservoir or commonplace book, as many refer to it, is quite helpful.
Not only has it benefited me in my writing, but I'm also reminded as I look through them how much more I have to learn and grow.
So, inspired by that, I wanted to share with you 10 more quotes that I think about often or I'm interested in lately.
Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.
Books have played such a critical role in my life. So I love this quote. It reminds me to keep learning. Keep growing. And to be the best leader I want to be, I must keep reading.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.
Our daily habits are truly the most critical component to living our highest quality of life. And every day, you make several critical decisions about how your future plays out for you.
We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out.
Ole Teddy was told by doctors as a young child his lungs were barely strong enough to live. So he started working out every day and built himself into a strong man known for being a great hunter, going to war for his country, and even finishing a speech after an attempt to assassinate him. I'd say he lived up to this one.
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
I've probably used this quote more than any other quote in my writing. It's so powerful, so prevalent. Even over 300 years after the man said it, long before the countless distractions we all deal with today. Timeless.
More and more today, we don't want to do the work or take the chances required for greatness, and we try to fix all those shortcuts on the back end with marketing and branding—modern, fancy words that mean lie.
This quote comes from Thompson's phenomenal book Pappyland, which details the struggle to keep the Pappy Bourbon brand alive. But it's about much more than bourbon. It's about family, hard work, and craftsmanship.
I believe very strongly in marketing. But the best marketing is remarkable products--built on the front end--then, sold with a compelling and genuine story. And in a world controlled by algorithms and hacks, the skill of doing great work on the front end should never be forgotten.
Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.
We all remember those cringeworthy moments from our past, just like those pictures with the haircuts. We can't help but wonder, 'What was I thinking?'
But looking back on your past should embarrass you. It means you've grown. You've set higher standards. You progressed, and hopefully, you're still progressing.
I'm at the stage of my life where I keep myself out of arguments. Even if you tell me 1 + 1 = 5, you're absolutely correct, enjoy.
Take it from this recovering arguer: this isn't easy (especially when I know you're wrong lol). But how many Facebook arguments have you witnessed over the years that left you thinking, "Who has the time?"
Look, everyday people speak incorrectly, borderline insanity, and have opinions that oppose yours. Move on. Let it go. You'll be so much happier and more productive having done so.
Seek a calling. Even if you don't know what that means, seek it. If you're following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you've ever felt.
That's advice Phil Knight said he'd tell young men and women. Don't settle. It's not easier or less painful. So you might as well go for it.
Life can be so much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call 'life' was made up by people who were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
And that he did.
We tend to view success as opportunity, ideas, and even luck. And I don't think that those things are irrelevant.
But what's more relevant and in your control is execution, persistence, and commitment.
Focus on what you control.
...adversity presents itself in many forms; and that if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.
These words are presented to the young protagonist, Count Alexander Rostov, shortly after his parents' passing, while he's yet to become a man, in the great novel A Gentleman In Moscow.
However unfortunate or painful, circumstances have a way of taking over our lives...IF we allow it. It doesn't go away. And nothing will save you without your commitment to master it.
Be so good they can't ignore you.
It's that simple. No hacks. No shortcuts.
Just beat at your craft, day after day after day. Practice, practice, practice. Until somebody notices you because you made it easy to see.
Every aspiring writer, creator, or entrepreneur should post these words somewhere they can see daily.
A happy person isn't someone who's happy all the time. It's someone who effortlessly interprets events in such a way that they don't lose their innate peace.
Naval has so many 'good liners' that it's hard to pick just one.
We live in a world that reports, interprets, and communicates at the surface level. Is it any wonder why we all too often act and respond with surface-level emotions?
Look, I'm not telling you not to feel emotions or not to allow them. But looking past the surface might help with the response.
Thanks for reading!
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