Random Quotes: “True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline” – Mortimer J. Adler

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It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reading Emerson’s Self-Reliance. Profound with a capital P, with an impressive economy of words. (is that a right way to use ‘economy’?)

The best way to get approval is not to need it. – Hugh MacLoed

Social media has accelerated our approval addiction.

Complete your task. Seek no reward. Make no claims. Without faltering fully choose to do what you must do. – 道德经

Also reading the Tao te Ching (道德经). It’s religious-text-as-poetry (unlike the Bible which is more religious-text-as-family-geneaology-and-historical-documentary).

You only build value in a company if you’re doing hard work to solve tough problems – Elon Musk

Ironman himself, whom we saw at Coachella.

Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face – Mike Tyson

Thanks to Deepak Malhotra.

True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline – Mortimer J. Adler

Still working through this one, but I’ve experienced that correlation (the more disciplined I am, the more free I feel). I don’t know which way the causation arrow flows.

As a yakuza, it’s okay to be betrayed. Don’t be the one to betray other people. If you betray others, you won’t be able to trust yourself. And if you can’t trust yourself, you’ll grow not to trust others as well. And that’s a lonely life. And not the way a man should live. – Yakuza boss

Reminds me of Marley’s quote.

Porn is to new media formats what acne is to teenagers. It’s just part of the process of growing up. – Paul Saffo

What a metaphor. Works on many levels.

I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it. – Anne Lamott

Thanks to Susan, from Bird by Bird.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit – Aristotle

Older I get, more I believe that a good life = good habits.

Money is the cheapest thing…liberty, freedom is the most expensive – Bill Cunningham

From a wonderful Netflix documentary on Bill’s career.

Most favorite quotes are here. It needs a bit of updating!

The genius of Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I tend to cycle through highly social and then highly solitary periods. From personal experience, the above quote couldn’t be more true.

I’m thoroughly enjoying Emerson’s Self-Reliance. I usually highlight 1 or 2 sentences per page of a typical Kindle book, but here it’s closer to 6 or 8. It’s a fast read, too (Kindle clocks it in at 88 pages).