“You may be sure you are at peace with yourself when no noise reaches you, when no word shakes you out of yourself, whether it be flattery or a threat, or merely an empty sound buzzing about you with unmeaning sin.” - Seneca

Stillness. To be steady while the world spins around you. To act without frenzy. To hear only what needs to be heard. To possess quietude—exterior and interior—on command

Inner peace and stillness is the highest good, the key to elite performance and a happy life

“All of humanities problems stem from mans inability to sit quietly in a room alone” - Blaise Pascal

Stillness is the key to think clearly. To making tough decisions. To managing your emotions. To identifying the right goals. To handling high pressure situations. To maintaining relationships. To building good habits. To being productive. To physical excellence. To feeling fulfilled. To capturing moments of laughter and joy

“To hold the mind still is enormous discipline, one which must be faced with the greatest commitment of your life.” - Garry Shandling

To master the mind seems as difficult as to master the mighty winds

Be fully present. Empty our mind of preconceptions. Take our time. Sit quietly and reflect. Reject distraction. Weigh advice against the counsel of our convictions. Deliberate without being paralyzed

Love can’t exist off in the future. Love is only real if it’s happening right now

The less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what’s in front of us

This moment we are experiencing right now is a diff. Even if it is a stressful, trying experience—it could be our last

Make what you can of what you have been given

You can’t be your best if your mind is elsewhere

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” - Herbert Simon

“If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters.” - Epictetus

Ask yourself at every moment, “is this necessary?”

“We have to live in such a way that we stop consuming the things that poison us and intoxicate us.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

“It’s impossible to hit and think at the same time.” - Yogi Berra

So much of the distress we feel comes from reacting instinctually instead of acting with conscientious deliberation

When your life is solely and exclusively about yourself, it’s worse than not fun—it’s empty and awful

“The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Virtue is more and civic excellence in the course of daily life

No one is more exhausted than the person who, because they lack a moral code, must belabor every decision and consider every temptation

No one feels worse about themselves than the cheater or the liar, even if they are showered with rewards for their cheating and lying

“When we embrace our strong emotions with mindfulness and concentration, we’ll be able to see the roots of these mental formations. We’ll know where our suffering has come from. When we see the roots of things, our suffering will lessen. So mindfulness recognizes, embraces, and relieves.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Each of us must break the link in the chain of what the Buddhists call samsara, the continuation of life’s suffering from generation to generation

A person enslaved to their urges is not free

No one of the swat of envy or jealousy has a chance to think clearly or live peacefully

Most desires are at their core irrational emotions. Think ahead to the refractory period, to consider the inevitable hangover before we take a drink. When we do that, these desires lose some of their power

Let us each note and write down our actions and impulses of the soul as though we were to report them to each other; and you may rest assured that from shame of becoming known we shall stop sinning and entertaining sinful thoughts altogether

Only those of us who take the time to explore, to question, to extrapolate the consequences of our desires have an opportunity to overcome them and to stop regrets before they start

Real pleasure lies in having a soul that’s true and stable, happy and secure

Enough is a beautiful thing

“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” - Lao Tzu

“Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.” - Epicurus

“To have blessings and to pride them is to be in Heaven; to have them and not to prize them is to be in Hell.” - Thomas Traherne

“We are restless because deep in our hearts we know now that our happiness is found elsewhere, and our work, no matter how valuable it is to us or to others, cannot take its place. But we hurry anyway, and attend to our business because we need to matter, and we don’t always realize we already do.” - Marco Rubio

You will never feel okay by way of external accomplishments. Enough comes from the inside

No one does their best work driven by anxiety, and no one should be breeding insecurity in themselves so that they might keep making things. That is not industry, that is slavery

We are not put on this planet to be worker bees, compelled to perform some function over and over again for the cause of the hive until we die. Not do we “owe it” to anyone to keep doing, doing, doing

We want more moments when we feel like we are enough

“Beauty remains, even in misfortune. If you just look for it, you discover more and more happiness and regain your balance.” - Anne Frank

The philosopher must cultivate the poets eye—the ability to see beauty everywhere, even in the banal or the terrible

There is no stillness to the mind that thinks of nothing but itself, not will there ever be peace for the body and spirit that follow their every urge and value nothing but themselves

At the purest level, the only thing that matters to any father or mother is that their children find peace, find meaning, find purpose

You must believe in something greater than yourself. This is about rejecting the tyranny of our intellect, of our immediate observational experience, and accepting something bigger, something beyond ourselves

“There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with.” - Seneca

A house without family is no home

We all need someone who understands us better than we understand ourselves, if only to keep us honest

To understand all is to forgive all. To love all of to be at peace with all, including yourself

The less we are convinced of our exceptionalism, the greater ability we have to understand and contribute to our environment, the less blindly driven we are by our own needs, the more clearly we can appreciate the needs of those around us, the more we can appreciate the larger ecosystem of which we are a part

A mind that I’d overtaxed and ill treated id susceptible to vice and corruption

“We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones.” - Henry David Thoreau

It will take our body—our habits, our actions, our rituals, our self-care—to get our mind and our spirit in the right place, just as it takes our mind and spirit to get our body to the right place

“It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

“If a person puts even one measure of effort into following ritual and the standard of righteousness, he will get back twice as much.” - Xunzi

A good routine is not only a source of great comfort and stability, it’s the platform from which stimulating and fulfilling work is possible

Greats know that complete freedom is a nightmare. They know that order is a prerequisite of excellence and that in an unpredictable world, good habits are a safe haven of certainty

When our thoughts are empty and our body is in a groove, we do our best work

When we not only automate and routinize the trivial parts of life, but also make automatic good and virtuous decisions, we free up resources to do important and meaningful exploration

Get your house in order. Get your day scheduled. Limit the interruptions. Limit the number of choices you need to make

“The gentleman makes things his servants. The petty man is servant to things.” - Xunzi

It’s difficult to understand yourself if you are never by yourself

Solitude allows you to reflect while others are reacting

Any positive trait—even hard work—taken to excess becomes a vice

You can’t run away from your choices—you can only fix them with better choices

“Nowhere you can go id more peaceful—more free of interruptions than your own soul.” - Marcus Aurelius

Don’t book a cross-country flight—go for a walk instead. Don’t get high—get some solitude, find some quiet

“A quick visit should be enough to ward off all and send you back ready yo face what waits you.” - Marcus Aurelius

High-minded thoughts and inner work are one thing, but all that matters is what you do

A person who makes selfish choices or acts contrary to their conscience will never be at peace. A person who sits back while others suffer or struggle will never feel good, or feel that they are enough, no matter how much they accomplish or how impressive their reputation may be

A person who does good regularly will feel good. A person who contributes to their community will feel like they are a part of one

Action is what matters

When we fall short of our standards, we don’t need to whip ourselves, we must simply let it instruct and teach us

If we want to be good and feel good, we have to do good

“As a well-spent day brings a happy sleep, so a well-employed life brings a happy death.” - Leonardo da Vinci

We must treat the vessel we inhabit on this planet well—or we will be forced to abandon it early

An empty mind, a full heart, and a busy body