2097 Quotations Found

We have a great, habitual fear inside ourselves. We’re afraid of many things — of our own death, of losing our loved ones, of change, of being alone. The practice of mindfulness helps us to touch nonfear. It’s only here and now that we can experience total relief, total happiness… In the practice of Buddhism, we see that all mental formations — including compassion, love, … [ Read more ]

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement

Fearlessness is what love seeks. Such fearlessness exists only in the complete calm that can no longer be shaken by events expected of the future… Hence the only valid tense is the present, the Now.

Author: Hannah Arendt | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Life & Society, Love, Relationships

It’s possible to care deeply without taking ourselves so seriously.

Author: Faith Hill | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement

Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.

Author: Vernā Myers | Subjects: Life & Society, Race Relations

Destroy the idea that you have to be constantly working or grinding in order to be successful. Embrace the concept that rest, recovery, and reflection are essential parts of the progress towards a successful and ultimately happy life.

Author: Unknown | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement

We have to be willing to confront the world as it is, not as we want it to be if we’re going to be successful.

Author: Barry McCarthy | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Success / Failure

Criticizing is easy and fast. Creating is difficult and slow. The two hours you spent on a book or movie usually took two years to produce. Anyone can tear down someone else’s work. The true test of insight is whether you can help them improve it or build something of your own.

Author: Adam Grant | Subjects: Communication, Concepts, Creativity and Innovation, Personal Improvement

Too many people settle for dumb luck and hope for the best, when they should be orchestrating smart luck. Although success in work and life often appears to be the result of random events, in truth the lucky ones often managed the broader context better. Some people may attribute their success to a few key breaks, such as a professor who helped them or an … [ Read more ]

Author: Paul J.H. Schoemaker | Source: Management Business Review (MBR) | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Success / Failure

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

Author: J.K. Rowling | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior

Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.

Author: Derek Sivers | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Career, Education | Scholarship, Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Success / Failure

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

Author: C.S. Lewis | Source: Farnam Street | Subject: Personal Improvement

I don’t like tax increases, but I think we have to be realistic. When we have a $2 trillion deficit, the solution is probably not going to be entirely spending cuts. And we also have to understand that the recent rounds of tax cuts, they didn’t have the benefits that were promised.

And the reason they didn’t have those benefits is because our problem in our … [ Read more ]

Author: Oren Cass | Source: PBS NewsHour | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy

The self, the place where we live, is a place of illusion. Goodness is connected with the attempt to see the unself… to pierce the veil of selfish consciousness and join the world as it really is.

Author: Iris Murdoch | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior

A calm mind is not the absence of conflict or stress, but the ability to cope with it.

Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior

Democrats understandably have a hard time fathoming why Americans would put our democracy at risk, but we miss the reality that our democracy is part of what angers them. Many voters have come to associate democracy with globalization, corruption, financial capitalism, migration, forever wars and elites (like me) who talk about it as an end in itself rather than a means to redressing inequality, reining … [ Read more ]

Author: Ben Rhodes | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy, Trump

Democrats walked into the trap of defending the very institutions — the “establishment” — that most Americans distrust. As a party interested in competent technocracy, we lost touch with the anger people feel at government. As a party that prizes data, we seized on indicators of growth and job creation as proof that the economy was booming, even though people felt crushed by rising costs. … [ Read more ]

Author: Ben Rhodes | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy

The playbook for transforming a democracy into a soft autocracy was clear: Win power with a populist message against elites. Redraw parliamentary districts. Change voting laws. Harass civil society. Pack courts with judges willing to support power grabs. Enrich cronies through corruption. Buy up newspapers and television stations and turn them into right-wing propaganda. Use social media to energize supporters. Wrap it up in an … [ Read more ]

Author: Ben Rhodes | Source: The New York Times | Subject: Politics & Public Policy

The things people love about you aren’t necessarily the things you want to be loved for. They decide they like you for reasons completely outside your control, of which you’re often not even conscious… At some point you have to accept that other people’s perceptions of you are as valid as (and probably a lot more objective than) your own.

Author: Timothy Kreider | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Relationships

The most important step in becoming successful in anything is to first become interested in it.

Author: Sir William Osler | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Success / Failure

We become what we consume. What you read today becomes the raw material of your thoughts tomorrow. High-quality inputs offer high-quality raw materials to assemble in the future. A person with an environment with rich sources of information makes better choices than someone consuming low-quality sources of information. Not only do they have better raw material, but they also have a broader perspective and a … [ Read more ]

Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Health & Medicine, Learning, Life & Society, Personal Improvement