Ask HN: What are some life changing quotes? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are some life changing quotes?

I came across this profound quote "Do not get upset with People or Situations, both are powerless without your Reaction" What are your favorite quotes that had a deep impact on you ?

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I thought about quotes and information in general recently. It's not that we can't put almost all things into words, the problem is in making the information change something.

Like one of those retard pills in medication. The active component is just one problem. Making it reach a destination where it's able to unfold the effect is another.

People like Tony Robins (or quotes for that matter) don't hold extraordinary wisdom, but they have found a way to make them emotionally relevant for a large group of people (and that's really the important part). That's what makes a guru, quotes, tutorials, etc. successful. Much like those calendar quotes reach another kind of people. Everything's allowed.

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I just bought Austin Kleons trilogy and it's stuffed with quotes. Let me open a random page for you...

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." - Annie Dillard (in Kleons 'Keep Going')

"Share your dots, but don't connect them." - Austin Kleon (in 'Steal Like An Artist')

"Whatever we say, we're always talking about ourselves." - Alison Bechdel (in Kleons 'Show Your Work')

I'm not a religious person, but I've always been partial to this excerpt:

"I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind." - Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have a few, some of them are more basic as it's a semi-humorous list compiled for my social media profile and not a truly serious one, but here we go:

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

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

C may let you shoot yourself in the foot, C++ may let you blow your whole leg off, but only CRISPR will let you turn it back into a tentacle.

There is no theoretical difference between theory and practice. There is a difference in practice.

Every great cause starts off as a movement, turns into a business, and ends up a racket.

A fancy vocabulary doesn't make you scary, it just means you have a thesaurus.

The art of diplomacy is to let other people have your way.

If you cannot say what you mean, you never mean what you say.

God created men. Colonel Colt made them equal.

LinkedIn is just like Tinder but the other way around. Hundreds of hot girls contact IT nerds and get ignored.

I’m a great believer in luck. I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it.

From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth,

From the laziness that's content with half-truths,

From the arrogance that thinks that it knows all truth,

O God of Truth, deliver me.

Anonymous

"Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" - Rage Against the Machine

Arguments about nothing are all the same. - pessimizer, here on HN

Fear is a bad prophet. - Jed Brown

We can't do what we aren't. - Steve Clark

Aristotle said that some people were fit only to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters. - C. S. Lewis

Every real man cries. - Malik Newman

The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane. - Erich Fromm

What we need is a non-oppressive moral absolute. We need moral absolutes that don't turn the bearers of those moral absolutes into oppressors. - Tim Keller

"If you don't have your own story, you become part of someone else's."

- Captain of an unknown boat in Castlevania s3e3

“You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realise how seldom they actually do.”

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest.

On a similar theme, I often think of Victor Frankl - "Between action and reaction, there is choice."

Another one I like:

"A Founder spends a few years doing what most people won't, so they can spend the rest of their life doing what most people can't."

(While it glosses over actual business success rates, and the "lazy, low risk" route to FIRE for many employed people, it's still motivating to me.)

" Take a simple idea & take it seriously " - Charlie Munger

A good collection of his quotes over time : https://25iq.com/quotations/charlie-munger/

“Sometimes life is like this tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you keep moving, you will come to a better place.” — Iroh, Avatar:The Last Airbender s02e20

  The past is never dead. 
  It's not even past.
    -- William Faulkner

  The future is already here. 
  It's just not evenly distributed.
    -- William Gibson

  The empire never ended.
    -- Phillip K. Dick

I have two:

"Step 1: Stay calm"

and,

"Be the change you wish to see in the world" - Ghandi

The first helps me address problems and move forward to solutions. The second will hopefully lead to a better world, however small or large the impact.

I like:

“be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”

Often mis attributed to Plato

I like

"just shadowban the oaf"

As currently practiced by all those who fear the populace-driven wrath of the auto-Dang...

"It might not be your fault, but it is your problem."

In other words, improving your life is your responsibility and nobody is going to do it for you.

What one man can do, another man can do.

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