Personal quotes I dug up

Sometimes you have to let the lesson learn you before you can learn the lesson.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but you should write the thousand words anyway.

You’d be surprised at how many stones you can find in a stoneless field.

A well-maintained average machine will ultimately outperform a poorly-maintained great machine.

Even when you’re not selling, you’re selling.

99% of the world’s people are not aware of 99% of the extraordinary things that are happening around them.

Count every grain you feed a horse, and he will, in turn, count every step he takes for you. Feed him to his heart’s content, and he will happily run for you all day.

You can’t fool all the people all the time, but the rich will buy anything.

The most important thing that money can bring is the realization of its insignificance.

Bliss is never having to worry about bliss.

I’d rather be wrong about a truly good person than be right about a truly bad person.

God has made Himself so constantly obvious every day that we have conditioned ourselves to ignore Him.

I try not to learn too many big words; it forces me to work harder at using the little words.

All wish to be Shakespeare but none want the insomnia.

Not trying is the same as being rejected.

The best cure for yearning is doing.

Dress like it’s the truth.

A kid living in poverty in Ecuador doesn’t give a damn about the term “exotic.”

One of the reasons I get mad at people and not my dog is my dog doesn’t know any better, and he doesn’t own a driver’s license.

Even Gomorrah was popular for a while.

If I can get your message across in half the time and within budget, would you mind if I used minimal effort?

The higher road is a tougher climb but has purer rain.

Once you start living the life that you’ve always wanted to live, all the things that happened before will simply seem like necessary dreams.

Futility is in the eyes of the beholder.

Words are the conscious intentions, actions are the subconscious results.

If there’s anything my parents taught me, it’s how to use paranoia to my advantage.

It is foolish to jump into the quicksand simply to kill the tiger that is already mired in it.

Because art is timeless and money is fickle, it is wise to be a timely businessman first, and a constant artist always.

The most unselfish attracts the most coveted.

Make sure you are listening when God whispers into your heart.

A good life’s biography should have post-it notes on every page.

Doing good is breathing; doing bad is holding one’s breath.

The keeper of the herd is never part of the herd but the herd should always think he is.

If you can’t find enough people to associate with who are smarter than you, you’re not trying hard enough.

Become everything except that which you cannot be.

The right truths in the right order are often more cunning than lies.

Hone your instincts before trusting them, and vice versa.

Some of the best mosaics are made up of broken pieces.

The worst thing you can do to make the people care about something is to force them to care about it.

Humans that work like machines usually lose out to machines.

Certification? I get certified every time a client cuts me a check.

Half of a sponge’s effectiveness lies in its ability to let go.

Too much money is bad, but I’d like to figure that out for myself.

If doubt exists, shouldn’t the doubting of doubt also exist?

What is more mundane, an ant, or a person who is unable to be fascinated by an ant?

Trying to force an answer when the answer isn’t yet ready will yield the wrong answer.

Do not be afraid to let the world see right through you; the snow is pure not because it is white, but because it is transparent.

Bliss is happiness before happiness.

Cliches are created for those who don’t know what they mean but need something intelligent to say.

A poet’s only talent is the ability to rearrange the words that everyone has said already.

Every crucial moment is a swarm of bees, to be regarded as painful stings or a jar of honey.

The earlier you finish, the higher the sun.

Can the ideal hold as much truth as the ordinary?

On an island, is a cliche unique?

Stare forever in the face, then wink at it.

The best way to recognize your place in the world is not to recognize your place in the world.

I’d rather solve a problem than win an argument.

A healthy ego realizes that it’s a figment of its own imagination.

Do not be afraid to lose a battle of aggression; the prize thrown away by the aggressor is compassion. (paraphrased from Tao Te Ching, #69)

Still waters still troubled pebbles.

The water knows that in order to overwhelm the stone, it has to concede and accept the stone. The water knows that by never claiming victory, it is always victorious.

Even if you’re taught wrong, make sure you learn right.

Whenever someone tells me that I’m not responsible for someone else, I remember why I recycle; because somewhere there’s a tree that will be spared. If I can do so much for a tree I will never know, shouldn’t I give at least as much consideration for a human being?

If they pay you enough for long enough to do something, sooner or later you’re going to think that you’re actually good at it.

Lust is the untempered, selfish, immature shadow of love.

Know the program, master the process.

Some ask why they don’t give out a test for a marriage license. What if marriage is the test, and children the score?

My friends are my friends, whether or not I have pictures of them.

If you need the pep talk, you don’t deserve the win.

It’s tough to help the world when you need help from the world.

The more you look in the mirror, the more the mirror will make you see what it wants you to see.

Knowledge that is untempered with foresight is worse than ignorance.

If you aren’t able to see a person as beautiful, go ask someone who’s trying harder than you are.

Every woman tries to raise her son to be the husband she never had. It’s up to the father to keep her from succeeding.

There is no traffic except for the speed of the slowest minds.

Dishonestly beautiful women age with a deceit that betrays both the beholder and the beholden.

You are less in control of the things that you think you are in control of, and more in control of the things that you think you do not control.

How you treat the world when you’re thirty will be how the world will treat you when you’re sixty. Live accordingly.

All the things that you experience, remember them.
All the things that you remember, learn from them.
All the things that you learn from, use them.
All the things that you use, be responsible for them.

Magic is the wool pulled over our eyes. Love is when we turn it into a sweater.

I make it a point not to be an expert at fixing problems so that I will be less tempted to cause them.

Collective suffering is not my idea of a “work environment”.

Logic, by definition, is an insult to the human condition.

Those without eloquence, underline.

Knowledge is almost everything.
Wisdom is almost everything.
Health is almost everything.
Friendship is almost everything.
Love is almost everything.
Hell, everything is almost everything.

Never work your thoughts with a partner before retiring. It causes both parties to justi
fy his or her own convictions in the darkness and silence that follows, time that is meant for sleep.

Patience isn’t as much a virtue as it is a circumstance.

Never try to outthink a non-thinker.

I speak two languages: I think in english; I curse universal.

It is much easier to create interest through conflict rather than cooperation and harmony.

The more uninteresting a person’s life is, the more interest that person will find in uninteresting things.

Those who have done what they enjoy, and have made money at it will tell you to do what you enjoy, and make money at it. Those who haven’t done what they enjoy will simply tell you to make some money.

A good teacher is aware that every single thing he says may be absolutely wrong, and still takes the chance of saying it.

Time should be used more for marking than measuring.

What we learn today fills the void of that which we have forgotten because of time. Without constant learning, the void grows.

There is nothing more painful than writing sober. And I am a masochist.

You have to turn a flashlight on before you can decide where to shine it.

Presentation, at best, is only representation.

Someone else being worse doesn’t give you an excuse to be bad.

The easiest thing to do is give up. The second easiest thing to do is keep going.

On the other side of the edge of insanity is the edge of mediocrity.

Money can never be lost. Money can be found, obtained, spent, recirculated, and found again. Life, however, can be lost.

None of us has ever lived a life that he intended. But every one of us lives a life that is intended.

A little smite goes a long way.

Altitude is what you get when you take a little bit off Attitude.

Even if everyone were given everything they ever wanted, sometimes the world is still gonna suck.

If we could only refuse to own all those things that caused us pain, we would have half of what we already do and be twice as happy about it.

Humility is a victory you can claim when you claim no other victory from another.

I may ask “why the road?” but never “where the road?”

There are no true promises except those fulfilled.

Children are the questions that adults try to avoid answering.

It is easy to justify anything. Just call it Art.

If they ask if this is a big day, I’ll say no, just a typical day in a big life.