"Those who enter a new era with size and strength often do not mater it. Those who adapt best to that new age thrive."
-Fareed Zakaria in "The Age of Revolutions". He's comparing the Dutch vs. the Spanish in the early modern era. Earlier he talks about how Venice was an example of moving toward a closed, oligarchic system which led to it's demise from it strong position in the world.
"There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There is too much good news to justify despair." - Scientist Donella Meadows, h/t the 3-2-1 newsletter from James Clear.
“Leadership is not domination, but the art of persuading people to work toward a common goal.”
Daniel Goleman
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” Simone Weil.
Quoted in The Good Life
"People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.'
-James Baldwin, cited in "There There" by Tommy Orange.
"Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant."
-William Arthur Ward (quoted in The Good Life)
"The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom." -- from Atomic Habits
The point being that consistently putting in the work and making small progress is what leads to success, but we have a desire for novelty that can lead to boredom and habit abandonment. So sticking with things despite boredom, showing up to do the work is key. But also finding ways to make it interesting - by working on small improvements, etc.
Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle. Some things are within your control. And some things are not.
-Epictetus, Discourses
cited in the the Good Life
"The more you give to others, the greater your abundance."
-Lao Tzu from the Tao Te Ching (referenced in the Waldinger happiness book)
"The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for."
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamzov
"You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself."
-Nelson Mandela
"I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they're stones that don't matter. As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.” - Maya Angelou
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. " -Viktor Frankl
"I believe that one of the most important things to learn in life is that you can make a difference in your community no matter who you are or where we live."
Rosalyn Carter
Dweck refers to common characteristics of leaders of successful companies profiled in "Good to Great" by Jim Collins:
all of the leaders were not big personality types but
"were self-effacing people who constantly asked questions and had the ability to confront the most brutal answers-- that is, to look failures in the face, even their won, while maintaining faith that they would succeed in the end."
"Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn't mean that others can't do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training." Carol Dweck in Mindset
"There is no such thing as a natural-born pilot. Whatever my aptitude or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime's learning experience...The best pilots fly more than others, that's why they're the best." - Chuck Yeager, quoted in Mindset.
"Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it." - Epictetus
via The Five Minute Journal
