It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
Wealth is Tranquility
A calm mind is rich
Buffet on value
‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.’ – Warren Buffet
Munger on Reality
‘If you see the world accurately it’s bound to be hilarious because it’s ridiculous.’ – Charlie Munger
Zen saying on success
‘Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water.’
Darwin on time
‘A man who dares to waste an hour of time has not discovered the value of his life.’ —Charles Darwin
Ben Franklin on Virtue
‘Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.’ -Benjamin Franklin
Seneca on suffering
‘We suffer more often in imagination than reality’ – Seneca
Obama on work
‘I first ran for Congress in 1999, and I got beat. I just got whooped. I was forty years old, and I’d invested a lot of time and effort into something that didn’t seem to be working. But the thing that got me through that moment, and any other time that I’ve felt stuck, is to remind myself that it’s about the work. Because if you’re worrying about yourself — if you’re thinking: ‘Am I succeeding? Am I in the right position? Am I being appreciated?’ — then you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you can keep it about the work, you’ll always have a path. There’s always something to be done.’ – Barack Obama
Horace Mann on Death
‘Be ashamed to die, until you have scored some victory for humanity.’ – Horace Mann
NDT on Death
‘The knowledge that I am going to die creates the focus I bring to being alive.’ – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Seneca on problem solvers
You learn to know a pilot in a storm.
Buffet on risk
‘In order to succeed, you must first survive.’ -Warren Buffett
Epictetus on the small stuff
Starting with things of little value—a bit of spilled oil, a little stolen wine—repeat to yourself: ‘For such a small price, I buy tranquillity.’ -Epictetus
Joseph Tussman on leverage
“What the pupil must learn, if he learns anything at all, is that the world will do most of the work for you, provided you cooperate with it by identifying how it really works and aligning with those realities. If we do not let the world teach us, it teaches us a lesson.” — Joseph Tussman
Xenophon on leadership
“Brevity is the soul of command. Too much talking suggests desperation on the part of the leader. Speak shortly, decisively and to the point–and couch your desires in such natural logic that no one can raise objections. Then move on.”
Colin Powell on Action
‘The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny.’ – Colin Powell
Elbert Hubbard on Haters
‘To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.’ -Elbert Hubbard
Aurelius on working with stressful people
‘I shall meet with meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable people.’
Plato on the price of apathy
‘The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.’ – Plato
Epictetus on perspective
‘People are disturbed not by things but by their view of things.’ – Epictetus
Seneca on adversity
‘You are unfortunate in my judgment, for you have never been unfortunate. You have passed through life with no antagonist to face you; no one will know what you were capable of, not even you yourself.’ – Seneca
William James on Automation
“We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can… The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.”
Bob Pieh on Negative Capability
‘Be tough, yet gentle
Humble, yet bold
Swayed always by beauty and truth’ – Bob Pieh
Royce Da 5′ 9′ on social obligations
Listen here, if I don’t got no business there, I don’t got no business there. See there’s a difference here. You hustlin’ so you can be seen. I’m grinding so I can disappear. – Royce Da 5′ 9′
Jack Ma on the stuggle
‘Today is brutal, tomorrow is more brutal, but the day after tomorrow is beautiful. However, most people will die tomorrow night.’ – Jack Ma
Buffet on holding periods
“If a company is profitable and growing, the best holding period is forever.” – Warren Buffet
The Pain of Starting
“On a moment-to-moment basis, being in the middle of doing the work is usually less painful than being in the middle of procrastinating.” – Eliezer Yudkowsky
Ben Franklin on Usefulness
“I would rather have it said, ‘he lived usefully’ than ‘he died rich.’ ” – Benjamin Franklin
Emerson on the meaning of life
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Adam Smith on human motivations
“In the great chess-board of human society,
every single piece has a principle of motion of its own.” — Adam Smith
The seemingly unrelated
“There is always something to be learned from the seemingly unrelated.” – Unknown
Seneca on fearing austerity
“Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: “Is this the condition that I feared?” —Seneca
Seneca on Negative Visualization
“We should love all our dear ones . . ., but always with the thought that we have no promise that we may keep them forever—nay, no promise even that we may keep them for long.” – Seneca
William Gibson on the future
“The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.” – William Gibson
Washington on building something lasting
“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid.” – Hamilton / George Washington / Micah 4:4
Marcus Aurelius on tranquility
“Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.” -Marcus Aurelius
Models are wrong but…
“All models are wrong. Some models are useful.” – George E. P. Box
A Sufi teaching about emergence
You think that because you understand “one” that you must therefore understand “two” because one and one make two. But you forget that you must also understand “and.” —Sufi teaching story
Richard Feynman on fooling yourself
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. – Richard Feynman
Josh Whiton on the noise of life
A limitless lineup of things vying for our attention — the most worthy, often lost in the clamor. – Josh Whiton
A Taoist Story about nonreactionism
There was once an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.
“Maybe,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“Maybe,” replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Maybe,” answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Maybe,” said the farmer.
Elon Musk on miracles
“It’s important if you’re starting a company to limit the number of miracles in series.” – Elon Musk
Marcus Aurelius on discarding emotion
“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Marcus Aurelius on failure
“Does what’s happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness, and all other qualities that allow a person’s nature to fulfill itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Epictetus on applied learning
“Don’t just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.” — Epictetus, The Art of Living
Seneca on the well ordered mind
“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.” — Seneca, Letters From a Stoic
Marcus Aurelius on work and waking up.
“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?
—But it’s nicer here…
So you were born to feel ‘nice’? Instead of doings things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?
—But we have to sleep sometime…
Agreed. But nature set a limit on that—as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you’re still below your quota. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations