May Quotes: “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” (Bob Marley)

See here for a full list of my favorite quotes. Send me yours, I’m always looking for great ones.

When the student is ready, the master appears. – Buddhist Proverb

The older I get, the more I believe that learning (both informal, like among friends, and formal, like taking classes) is vital to staying young, becoming successful, and being happy.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

-Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Full poem here. A truly great one.

Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. – Alfred in The Dark Knight

Scary but believable concept.

The trick is to choose a goal just beyond your present abilities; to target the struggle. Thrashing blindly doesn’t help. Reaching does. – Daniel Coyle in The Talent Code

Here are my highlights from The Talent Code (great book if you enjoy studying human behavior).

Without haste, but without rest – Goethe

Uh-huh. There’s a dirty joke in here about the old bull and the young bull…

Our greatest battles are those with our own minds – Jameson Frank

Could not agree more. Entrepreneurs please read this.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind – Bertrand Russell

I loved this quote in high school. I like it less now. It’s always interesting to see your likes/dislikes change as you grow older.

Revenge is a dish best served cold

Robert Greene’s Law #36: Disdain things you cannot have – ignoring them is the best revenge. Here’s a full list of his 48 laws of power.

The competitor to be feared is the one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time – Henry Ford

I need to remember this.

The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for. – Bob Marley

Appreciate this insight more and more.

I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth. Then I ask myself the same question – Harun Yahya

Why I try to see a new city every month. Still fail.

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction – J.K. Rowling

Mm-hmm. Think many children-of-immigrants can attest to this.

You sound like a 17-year old guy who’s happy to get some pussy. I want you to sound like a 30-year old guy who likes to fuck. – D.O.C.

Ha-ha.

The wrong question to ask of a myth is whether it is true or false. The right question is whether it is living or dead, whether it still speaks to our condition. – Richard Holloway

An insight I would not have appreciated when I was younger. Wonder what other insights will reveal themselves in time.

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. – Blaise Pascal

One that is beautiful as much for its phrasing as its insight.

10 of my favorite quotes

I put together this page to share the best quotes/parables/anecdotes/stories/movie-one-liners I’ve collected since I began collecting such things.

Here are 10 of my favorites.

On leadership:

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

On travel:

I’m just going to walk the earth. …You know, like Caine in Kung Fu. Walk from place to place, meet people, get in adventures. – Jules in Pulp Fiction

On great fathers:

My father. He used to… He used to have a barbecue every Sunday after church. For anybody in the neighborhood. If you didn’t go to church, you didn’t get any barbecue. – Dom in Fast Five

On humanity:

Society tames the wolf into a dog. And man is the most domesticated animal of all.– Nietzsche

On wisdom:

By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter. – Confucius

On love:

Charlie Kaufman: But she thought you were pathetic.
Donald Kaufman: That was her business, not mine. You are what you love, not what loves you.
(scene from Adaptation)

On writing:

People ask me why I write. I write to find out what I know.

On hard work:

If you have two choices, choose the harder. If you’re trying to decide whether to go out running or sit home and watch TV, go running. Probably the reason this trick works so well is that when you have two choices and one is harder, the only reason you’re even considering the other is laziness. – Paul Graham

On life choices:

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. – Gandalf

On youth:

Two young salmon are swimming along one day. As they do, they are passed by a wiser, older fish coming the other way.
The wiser fish greets the two as he passes, saying, “Morning boys, how’s the water?”
The other two continue to swim in silence for a little while, until the first one turns to the other and asks, “What the hell is water?”
– From David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Commencement Speech at Kenyon