Life quotes 251 to 300

251. ‘Many people fail to make important changes – changes that could significantly enhance their lives – because they’re unwilling to accept the discomfort that accompanies change. For example, you may avoid changing to a more meaningful career because you don’t want the discomfort of starting from scratch. Or you may avoid asking someone on a date because you don’t want to risk rejection.’ Russ Harris (The Happiness Trap)

252. ‘If you could somehow listen in your own funeral and the people you most care about were there, what sort of things would you love to hear them say about you? What would you like them to think about the role you played in their lives?’ Russ Harris (The Happiness Trap)

253. ‘Life gives most to those who make the most of what life gives.’ Russ Harris (The Happiness Trap)

254. ‘If you don’t decide where you’re going, you’ll end up wherever you’re heading.’ Ancient Eastern saying (on why it is important to have a direction in life)

255. ‘There is something about the pace of walking and the pace of thinking that goes together. Walking requires a certain amount of attention but it leaves great parts of the time open to thinking. I do believe once you get the blood flowing through the brain it does start working more creatively.’ Geoff Nicholson

256. ‘And most of all, stop worrying about your happiness. Happiness does not come from a job. It comes from knowing what you truly value, and behaving in a way that’s consistent with those beliefs.’ Mike Rowe

257. ‘To get an education, you must jump through many hoops. Some are ultra-competitive. Others require perfect timing. Many will seem unreachable, at first. There will be moments of boredom. You will be burned. And even embarrassed. But often, your imagination will be sparked. With luck and coordination, you will reach the final hoop. And arrive at a place where hoops are scarcely seen. Should you stop jumping? No! You must create your own hoops.’ Unknown

258. ‘Life is linear. Life is circular. Life spirals out of control. Life is beautiful and precious. Life is nasty, brutish and short. Life is an illusion, man. Life is full of surprises. What is the meaning of life? That’s up to you! Life has value. Life is ephemeral. What comes after life? Life has elegant patterns and rules. When you think you have a grasp on life, life begins anew.’

259. ‘Anticipation of a newborn: We have taken all the classes. We have read all the books. We have carefully chosen a name. We have prepared a room. We have filled it with stuff. We have a place for everything. We have a plan. We are ready. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE ARE DOING! Things are about to get interesting.’ Unknown

260. ‘Good ideas and bad ideas look very similar. But they behave quite differently. Look, a new one! Try to classify it and you’ll kill it. Which kind is it? The only way to find out is to chase it! It will take you to unfamiliar places, require increasingly complex plans and may elude you completely. Was it worth chasing? Only you can decide.’ Unknown

261. ‘Behind every great novelist is childhood trauma. Miserable Job. Moments of self-discovery. Episode of debauchery. Pathologic ambition. Loyal pet. Neglected spouse. Personal demons. Years of boring hard work.’ Unknown

262. ‘The truth is there is no simple way or single answer to ageing well. It really is a complex combination of lifestyle factors and of course good diet and exercise. Broadly speaking unpicking the Japanese lifestyle – a diet with plenty of fish and vegetables, a focus on yoga and other strengthening exercises, less smoking and drinking than the Western world – seems to do the trick.’ Prof Lynn Corner

263. ‘I think your age is just a number. It’s not your birthday, it’s how you age which makes the difference. It’s your attitude to all the things that happen in your life that plays the biggest part.’ Olga Kotelko, 95yrs old

264. ‘Studies have shown people to be generally bad, when single, at predicting what later turn out to be their actual relationship preferences…this shouldn’t be a surprise – in life, you usually don’t get good at something until you’ve done it a bunch of times. Unfortunately, not many people have a chance to be in more than a few, if any, serious relationships before they make their big decision.’ Tim Urban (waitbutwhy blog)

265. ‘More and more research on ageing shows the more friends you have when you are 50-60 years old, the less likely you are to be isolated in later life. And the less isolated you are, the less likely you are to be frail as the years go by.’ Dr. Carol Holland

266. ‘In other words, you have this limited amount of time on Earth and you really want to create a life where you’re happy. And if how you utilize time is not making you happy, it should only be because you’re using it to make the future better, either for yourself or for others. In the ideal situation, you’re well balanced between 1) enjoying your time and 2) building a brighter future for yourself or for others and you’re often able to accomplish both simultaneously (like those times when you love your job). Tim Urban (waitbutwhy blog)

267. Emma to Adèle: ‘But I have infinite tenderness for you. I always will. All my life long.’ Blue Is the Warmest Colour –

268. ‘In a learning environment, a common cause of boredom is lack of understanding; for instance, if one is not following or connecting to the material in a class or lecture, it will usually seem boring. However, the opposite can also be true; something that is too easily understood, simple or transparent, can also be boring.

269. ”The problems caused by living against the body clock (lack of sleep, shift work etc) may be less sexy than the countless “this or that causes cancer stories” it is none-the-less a major problem for society. You might not notice any short-term changes in your health following circadian disruption, but over a long period of time, the consequences could be quite severe.’ Prof Andrew Loudon

270. ‘We are the supremely arrogant species; we feel we can abandon four billion years of evolution and ignore the fact that we have evolved under a light-dark cycle. What we do as a species, perhaps uniquely, is override the clock (lack of sleep, shift work etc). And long-term acting against the clock can lead to serious health problems.’ Prof Russell Foster

271. ‘One of the things that I feel very strongly, and that my mother’s suicide and my brother’s suicide make me feel deeply was to live well. To do the best I can with what I am. So that in a way I do them justice – somebody has to make it worthwhile, somebody has to try. Otherwise what’s it for?’ Freida Hughes

272. ‘Dr. King taught that every life is marked by dimensions of length, breadth and height. Length refers to self-love, breadth to the community and care of others, and height to the transcendent, to something larger than oneself.’ Gordon Marino

273. ‘Every achievement can be converted into a measure in time. Want to write a novel? You’ll probably need 400 hours. Learn the piano to a high standard? A couple thousand. Earn a billion dollars? Think 40,000 or more (and quite a bit of luck, but time can buy you that too).’ Oliver Emberton

274. ‘You know how anyone can be anything they want, right? Well, they can’t. Had Bill Gates been born in a different time – or just a different town – he might have spent his days as an illiterate peasant scooping up potatoes with his hands. Circumstances matter.

275. Work you don’t love. You’re paid pretty well, but you’re unhappy. Your job is a necessary burden, your dreams are fading and you’re trapped by the need to not fall off your own treadmill. You spend your earnings trying to find happiness.

276. Work you’re not rewarded for. You feel wasted, unappreciated, undiscovered. You’re frustrated by people around you who have less talent but infinitely more success. Life is unfair, and you’re tired of waiting for someone else to come to your rescue.

277. Work you’re no good at. You desperately want to succeed at what you’re doing, but you can’t seem to compete. You feel increasingly inadequate and desperate.

278. ‘If what you’re seeking is short-term rewards there’s no way you’d choose teaching in the Mississippi Delta over working at Goldman Sachs but there’s something calling people to do work they find meaningful.’ Kevin Roose

279. ‘Parents and carers should know that even focusing on something simple will make children less aware of their surroundings, compared to adults. For example, a child trying to zip up their coat while crossing the road may not be able to notice oncoming traffic, whereas a developed adult mind would have no problem with this. The capacity for awareness outside the focus of attention develops with age, so younger children are at higher risk of inattentional blindness.’ Prof Nilli Lavie

280. ‘When you’re sleep-deprived I imagine it’s quite similar to having taken certain drugs. The logical side of your brain is slowly withering away because there’s not enough energy to power it, and all these crazy ideas start happening that your brain would normally suppress. I find the brain a mystical beast. It’s so bizarre and interesting.’ Dave Bayley

281. It seems unfair some have good looks, but it is like a large bonus given then taken away progressively; better have no such bonus at all.’ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

282. ‘When people are juggling time, they are doing something very similar to when they’re juggling finances. It is all scarcity juggling. You borrow from tomorrow, and tomorrow you have less time than you have today, and tomorrow becomes more costly. It’s a very costly loan.’ Eldar Shafir

283. ‘Tinder’s (app to know people) side-swiping pickiness reduces us to Henry VIII, poring over flattering portraits of young European princesses and then stamping his foot when the original fails to impress. It makes chattels of us all.’ Harriet Walker

284. ‘I ask people what is happening with conversation and they tell me: “What is wrong is it takes place in real-time and you can’t control what you are going to say.” What they mean by that is that they’d rather have control and be able to do their little side of the conversation when they are relaxed, when they can edit and also, they sort of want to broadcast their little side of the conversation.’ Sheryl Turkle

285. ‘Texting and talking at the same time is so rude. It’s like me having a conversation with you and a completely different conversation with somebody else – totally ignoring you – coming back to you when I felt like it.’ Diana Mather

286. ‘Here’s a list of some examples of the kinds of things other people don’t give a shit about: how fat you are, if you are in a relationship, your career prospects, your outfit, what your home looks like. Nobody’s keeping score of those things except you (try not to). Avoid people who make a virtue of their unwillingness or inability to edit themselves to spare the feelings of others.’ Lauren Laverne

287. ‘Never buy anything to impress someone you don’t know. Never wear a T-shirt with a face on it that’s more attractive than yours.’ Lauren Laverne

288. ‘When talking to someone you like, don’t be nonchalant. Be complimentary. Everyone likes compliments, except dickheads, and it’s usually politic to identify them as quickly as possible.’ Lauren Laverne

289. ‘We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood – it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” – Martin Luther King Jr

290. ‘The value of a great quote does lie in the fact that it contains a world of wisdom, wisdom that may have taken the author many years to arrive at, in a line or two.’ Robin Sharma (Life Lessons from the Monk who sold his Ferrari)

291. Researchers here have found people don’t just walk more slowly when they’re on smartphones, their field of vision is reduced to 5% of what it should be.

292. ‘Last year researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Northwestern University in Illinois hypothesized that language study should prove beneficial for older adults, noting that the cognitive tasks involved — including working memory, inductive reasoning, sound discrimination and task switching — map closely to the areas of the brain that are most associated with declines due to aging.’ William Alexander

293. ‘There’s a secret that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.’ Steven Pressfield

294. ‘These are not easy questions. Who am I? Why am I here? They’re not easy because the human being isn’t wired to function as an individual. We’re wired tribally, to act as part of a group.’ Steven Pressfield

295. ‘Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.’ Steven Pressfield

296. ‘The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.’ Steven Pressfield

297. ‘Do you understand? I hadn’t written anything good. It might be years before I would, if I ever did at all. That didn’t matter. What counted was that I had, after years of running from it, actually sat down and done my work.’ Steven Pressfield

298. ‘Seeking support from friends and family is like having your people gathered around at your deathbed. It’s nice, but when the ship sails, all they can do is stand on the dock waving goodbye.’ Steven Pressfield

299. ‘I’m keenly aware of the Principle of Priority, which states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.’ Steven Pressfield

300. ‘To clarify a point about professionalism: The professional, though he accepts money, does the work out of love. He has to love it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t devote his life to it of his own free will.’ Steven Pressfield