Stuff About Things #9

"Sometimes when you come up the rough side of the mountain, it allows you to learn really valuable lessons and when you do fall in love with the process, the process will love you back."
     — Matt Campbell, football coach at Iowa State

"There's always that doubt in the back of your mind about what you're doing, and I think you need that edge, I think you need that to be successful."
     — Jim Boeheim, men's basketball coach at Syracuse

"Do the good that's in front of you, even if it feels very small."
     — Sharon Salzberg

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."
     — Arnold H. Glasow

"An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production."
     — Robin Sharma

"The human attention span is now shorter than the attention span of the goldfish. It's down to eight seconds."
     — Arianna Huffington
 
"I'm a big believer in micro-steps (to self-improvement).... I don't do anything perfectly, I'm a work in progress."
     — Arianna Huffington

"I would recommend they read the latest science around the importance of sleep and pauses in the course of our day. Because we claim to be data driven, but we are ignoring the data. The prevailing culture still believes that being 'always on' is the way to succeed, that cutting down on sleep means we are more productive because we have more time available. So I would show them (students) the latest science and then I would bring together new role models, people in the arena, people they admire like Jeff Bezos (who strives to get eight hours of sleep for better clarity, decision-making, and so on)."
     — Arianna Huffington, advocate for proper self-care, sleep, digital detoxing, walking, etc.

"You can't really run your life from your inbox."
     — Arianna Huffington

"I was born and raised in Los Angeles, a California girl who lives by the ethos that most things can be cured with either yoga, the beach, or a few avocados."
     — Meghan Markle, actress and girlfriend of Prince Harry

"The distinction between base avarice and honest ambition may be exceedingly fine."
     — Reverend Noel Blackwell, 1853

"If you have everything under control, you're not moving fast enough."
     — Mario Andretti

"Smile when it's raining, and when you're going through hell - keep going."
     — Bear Grylls, survival advice

"I am ordinary, but I am determined."
     — Bear Grylls

"... if you can help people feel stronger and more capable because of what you tell them, then it becomes worthwhile... in ways that are impossible to quantify."
     — Bear Grylls

"I haven't always succeeded, and I haven't always had the most talent, but I have always given of myself with great enthusiasm – and that counts for a lot. In fact, my dad had always told me that if I could be the most enthusiastic person I knew then I would do well. I never forgot that. And he was right. I mean, who doesn't like to work with enthusiastic folk?"
     — Bear Grylls

"Families are always great levelers."
     — Bear Grylls

"If you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family."
     — Ram Dass 

"I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me – that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns."
     — Anne Lamott

"Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be."
     — Thomas a Kempis 

"Don't judge someone just because they sin differently than you."
     — internet meme 

"Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions."
     — Elizabeth Gilbert

"Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct."
     — Thomas Carlyle 

"No rain, no flowers."
     — internet meme

"After playing poorly in her first match of the year (at the Australian Open held in January), in which she felt she had missed too many backhands, she went to the practice court and for two and a half to three hours hit 2,500 of them, by her estimation. If she missed one, she started over. She did roughly the same the next practice day."
     — Vanity Fair article about Serena Williams

"Don't explain your philosophy – embody it."
     — Epictetus

"Riches and rank have no necessary connection with genuine gentlemanly qualities. The poor man with rich spirit is in all ways superior to the rich man with a poor spirit.... He who has lost all, but retains his courage, cheerfulness, hope, virtue, and self respect, is still rich."
     — Samuel Smiles, from his book Self-Help published in 1859

"Do you know what the word 'hero' meant in ancient Greek? Get this, it didn't mean 'tough guy' or 'killer of bad guys.' It meant 'protector.' A hero has strength for two. A hero's secret weapon? Love, compassion, empathy. Quite simply, a hero cares. And, very importantly, a hero is willing to do the work required to optimize, and build the strength to make a difference in their families, communities, and world. And you know what? Our world needs heroes today more than ever before. We need you to be a hero."
     — Brian Johnson, creator of Philosophers Notes, check 'em out!