Ryan Holiday

There is this idea that if you just make great stuff—if you’re authentic and cool—it will just happen.

Compulsion to do is the opposite of being. It’s the opposite of being present.

“My arrow (I promise you) spares no one // You will all dance the ballet of which I sing”

It’s the work that was bold and brash and new when it came out that tends to still feel fresh decades later.

“Why am I telling myself that I’ve been harmed?”

Because if you get caught, you will fall. It will hurt.

Any routine junkie can tell you what happens when your routine gets messed up: Your thoughts race. You get frustrated. You feel what is almost like withdrawals.

The worries and anxieties of daily life seem to fall away when we stand next to the ocean or walk through a beautiful park.

We tell ourselves we don’t have time to prepare too much because we have other things going on, or we tell ourselves we’re not going to prepare because we haven’t been paid yet.

Most people with a public persona tell you that the downsides outweigh the upsides.

“If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.”

So fight it. A lot depends on whether you win the battle. Hopefully these books will help.