“Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death.”

If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

A habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically.

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

Your behaviors are usually a reflection of your identity.

Being motivated and curious counts for more than being smart because it leads to action.

The work that hurts you less than it hurts others is the work you were made to do.

At some point, everyone faces the same challenge on the journey of self-improvement: you have to fall in love with boredom.

Research has shown that once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they are more likely to act in alignment with that belief.

A genius is not born, but is educated and trained.

I didn’t start out as a writer. I became one through my habits.

Being specific about what you want and how you will achieve it helps you say no to things that derail progress, distract your attention, and pull you off course.

The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It’s the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows.

But perhaps the best way to measure your progress is with a habit tracker.

You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.

A very small shift in direction can lead to a very meaningful change in destination.

At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But problems are born faster than they can be solved.

We are all just humans trying to survive in this crazy world, in the spaces between birth and death.

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences…our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

Her mother was a cultivated woman – she was born in a greenhouse.

I am not a home breaker and I can never be. I haven’t been brought up to create havoc in other people’s homes.

I am not very comfortable about dancing at weddings and New Year parties. Maybe it’s because of the way I have been brought up; I wouldn’t want my family to feel that cringe moment. Dance is an art for me.

From the time we’re born until we die, we’re kept busy with artificial stuff that isn’t important.