Quotes

These have stuck with me over the years and shaped my thoughts

1. Successful advertising for any product is based on information about its customer

2. To generate demand,  one first learn what the customer demands

3. Sell the problem you solve,  not the product

4. "Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valley; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death." -Sun Tzu

5. “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” -HL Mencken 

6. “I mean, they say you die twice. Once when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” - Banksy

7. The trick was to balance the fulfillment of your wants with the carrying out of your duties

8. And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. –Kahlil Gibran

9. The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried

10. Over time you'll start to see "no" as a challenge, not as a rejection 

11. Eventually your gods reveal their clay feet

12. When a man is generous,  he must show his generosity as personal - The Godfather 

13. If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself - Samuel Coleridge 

14. Guess I’m a coward afraid to face the man I am - Cage The Elephant

15. “The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters.” -Genghis Kahn

16. "I'd rather live a life of regret than what if”

17. "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." ~~ Thomas Paine

18. "Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death .... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. " -Bertrand Russell

19. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more commonplace then unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. -Calvin Coolidge  

20. To outlive is not a matter of living a long life

21. Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory  

22. "People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents." -Andrew Carnegie

23. "And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.’” - Kurt Vonnegut

24. The iron ore feels its self needlessly tortured as it goes through the furnace. The tempered blade looks back and knows better.

25. Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought

26. Its always better to be underestimated.

27. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

28. when you chop your own wood, it warms you twice

29. Starve the ego. Feed the soul.

30. Speak half as much as you want to and people will listen to you twice as well

31. A degree is a ticket to an interview

32. I don’t travel because I want to leave my home. I travel because I need to know why I’m staying. 

33. “When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.” ― Paulo Coelho 

34. You can't always be in the right place at the right time.  So always be in the right place

35. Im young and healthy so lets be bold

36. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle .— Plato 

37. If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders .Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea .—Antoine de Saint—Exupery 

38. The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice . Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed . — Ernest Hemingway 

39. “In the end, it’s not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away” – Shing Xiong

40. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Khalil Gibran

41. “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” – Lao-Tze  

42. The harder I work, the luckier i get

43. Sometimes the greatest talent is recognizing it in others

44. Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body - Lucious Seneca 

45. Experience is the teacher of all things

46. Sleep around with dogs and you'll catch their flees

47. Yesterday, you said tomorrow

48. Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows.  Select only things to steal that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.

49. Authenticity is invaluable; originally is nonexistent, and don't bother concealing your thievery-Celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from-It's where you take them to."

50. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page

51. Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life

52. When you’re wrong admit. When you’re right, shut up

53. Its not what you do that makes you tired, its how you sleep at night

54. All the Arts … imitate as far as they can the one great truth that all can see 

55. Be content with what you have;  Rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you

56. Be like melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself

57. When there is no enemy within,  the enemies outside cannot hurt you

58. Nobody takes power. Someone else has to give in to them.

59. There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution. -Aldous Huxley

60. When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just ask him. If you listen, he’ll tell you how he got there; how he forgot where he was going and then he woke up. If you listen, He’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel and dreamt of being perfect. And then his smile with wisdom, content that he realized, the world isn’t perfect. We’re flawed because we want so much more. We’re ruined because we get these things and wish for what we had.- Mad men, Don Draper 

61. Create value through scarcity

62. The very basic of man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences. And hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon. For each day to have a new and different sun. - Christopher McCandless

63. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.  The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people. - Randy Pausch

64. A devil in hand is well worth keeping: it take a good while to catch one again - Faust

65. I shall pass this way once; any good, therefore, that i can do,  or any kindness that i can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for i shall not pass this way again.

66. Chance favors only the prepared mind - Louis Pasture

67. First Intention, then enlightenment

68. The men who have, pay for it

69. Truth, Love, and Beauty

70. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever

71. He jests the scars who were never wounds

72. Things without remedy should be without regard

73. The more water, the higher the boat

74. Recognize opportunity

75. Smile

76. The thoughtful exert themselves

77. In silence there is eloquence

78. Don't fear god; Don't worry about death; What is good is easy to get, and what is terrible is quick to endure

79. The world is his who enjoys it

80. Youth is wasted on the young

81. Transcend the delusions

82. You've got to be a spirit, you can't be no ghost - ghostdog 

83. Enjoy yourself. Its later than you think

84. All is fair in love and war

85. Faint heart never got fair maiden

86. How radical are you willing to be?

87. Do what is right because it is right

88. Everyone could. Its a question of do you want to?

89. There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired

90. He is behind all the pain there ever was. Behind every crime ever committed. He is hiding behind your pain. Embrace the pain and you will win this game - Revolver

91. Think for them so they don't have to

92. The phone works both ways doesn't it?

93. Where ever you don't want to go is where you'll find him - Revolver , Guy Ritchie 

94. More YOU than I

95. Fear is the Enemy. Conquer the Enemy

96. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought - Jurassic park

97. Question the givens

98. Are you chasing the wolf or is it chasing you?

99. People only know what you tell them

100. Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky is by no means a waste of time - John Lubbock

101. We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them. - John Walters

102. Fear not

103. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

104. Love is a necessary evil

105. Excess is not rebellion

106. Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

107. Them belly full, but we hungry

108. I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.

109. There is no certainty, only opportunity - V for Vendetta 

110. You are a victim of the rules you live by

111. Most of the things you worry about never happen

112. Illusion is the first of all pleasures 

113. They loved each other, but love is not happiness

114. We'll see how loyal a hungry dog is...

115. Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet

116. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you. -Ray Bradbury

117. Don't strive to make you presence noticed, just make your absence felt.

118. Olly-olly-oxen-free." The freedom of being found or coming out of hiding...

119. I am an old fool who borrowed the dreams of a young fool.

120. You won't know until you try

121. Life is too boring not to try

122. Future civilizations are going to judge all men by the extent to which they've been artists

123. Memento mori

124. Nothing is out of arms reach

125. A true leader moves people in the direction they already want to go,  though they may be unaware of where that is

126. The revolution is in the mind

127. We call it education if we already believe in it and propaganda if we don't.

128. Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them

129. Hard work may not always result in success, but it will never result in regret 

130. Instead of trying to figure out what someone is good at, try to figure out what they want to be seen as being good at, and make them feel they are

131. The best art divides the audience 

132. As the first hour goes so goes the day

133. When you forget yourself, you see everything else - Jerry Garcia 

134. Perhaps that you're searching far too much? That in all that searching, you don't find the time for finding? - Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse 

135. You need a line in the water if you want to catch a fish

136. If you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore - Fahrenheit 451

137. Chance is only the measure of our ignorance - Henri Poincare

138. I can't decide between what's right and what's right in front of me

139. From nothing to nothing is no time at all - East of eden

140. People are felt rather than seen after the first few moments - east of eden 

141. It is not our enemies that defeat us. It is our fear - altered carbon

142. Convince the crowd, you're more likely to convince the man - altered carbon 

143. You should no more grieve for the rest than for a buckle lost from your first shoe, or for your lesson book which will be lost when you are old. We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the March. But there is nothing outside the March so nothing can be lost to it.

144. Perhaps the best conversationalist in the world is the man who helps others to talk - east of eden

145. With every crown comes the guillotine - wild, wild country 

146. Pick you enemies carefully, because the way they fight, you will become - wild wild country 

147. Starved for reality

148. Frontiers are where you find them - Everybody wants some!! 

149. The summit of happiness is when a man is ready to be what and who he is

150. A strange new light can be just as frightening as the dark - westworld 

151. Man's thinking must not be subdued by his own instruments - ralph Waldo emerson 

152. There are people who cannot resist the desire to get into a cage with wild beasts and be mangled. Fear makes them fearless - Tropic of cancer 

153. Abundance is the daughter of economy and work - The Air-conditioned Nightmare 

154. The world lives on perception, not reality - Bert

155. Those who are partly aware are the creators, those who are fully aware are the gods - air-conditioned nightmare

156. Everytime a phone call is made, it is a sales call. Either you sell the customer, or the customer sells you on why not to buy - boiler room

157. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor - Seneca 

158. Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding - kahil gabran

159. In a short time this will be a long time ago - Slow West 

160. Own your kingdom - Guy Ritchie 

161. Give up what you want now for what you want longterm - John vorshek

162. You act like mortals in all that you fear and like immortals in all that you desire - Seneca 

163. Leadership is Inspiring people to implement new ideas in the future - leaders guide to storytelling 

164. Every overnight success is 10 years in the making

165. One does not win by power, one wins to be powerful - finite and infinite games

166. Sometimes you make more money saying no - Doug Danny

167. No one likes to be sold, but everyone likes to buy

168. You don't get what you deserve, you get what you take - peaky blinders

169. They said there were two fathers, one above, one below. They lied. There was only ever the devil. And when you looked up from the bottom, it was just his reflection laughing back down at you - westworld 

170. You can't just want the end result. You have to want the work. - Inc article 

171. You're not looking to other people to tell you who you are

172. Beware - Some people want to tell you who you are and how you feel - Duncan trussell

173. Take away your crutches

174. There are no moral phenomena. Only moral views of phenomena - Nietzsche

175. One loves one's desires. Not the objects of one's desires - nietzsche

176. The happy ending comes when you've learned all the lessons - Kelly slater

177. I had everything but couldn’t see it - the flight attendant 

178. The true test of intelligence is whether you are getting what you want out of life - Naval

179. Be impatient with your actions and patient with your results - naval

180. Learn to enjoy the work and the results will come - naval

181. Heirs failed. Founders succeeded - Balajis

182. A man commits himself and draws his own portrait, outside of which there is nothing. No doubt this thought may seem harsh. . . . But on the other hand, it helps people to understand that reality alone counts, and that dreams, expectations, and hopes only serve to define a man as a broken dream, aborted hopes, and futile expectations. - Jean-Paul Sartre

183. Lost in the finite - Eric Fromm 

184. Hey, you know that thing Dostoevsky wrote on gambling? It’s like that. When you’re surrounded by endless possibilities, one of the hardest things you can do is pass them up - Norwegian Wood

185. It is always difficult to be born. You know the chick does not find it easy to break his way out of the shell. Think back and ask yourself: was the way all that difficult? Was it only difficult? Wasn’t it beautiful, too? Can you think of a more beautiful and easier way? - Damien by Herman hesse

186. Dreams are for those who can’t handle reality. But at the same time, reality is for those who can’t handle their dreams - perverts guide to ideology

187. Be the person who needs to be held back, not pushed forward. - CNBC article 

188. Karma is just you, repeating your patterns, virtues, and flaws until you finally get what you deserve - Naval

189. My definition of wisdom is knowing the long term consequences of your actions. Wisdom applied to external problems is judgement. - Naval

190. Last generation’s pirates join this generation’s country club - free culture