Life Is Short And So Is This Book

by Peter Atkins

The trick is people who are most productive tend to say no to things that are unimportant to them and focus on what they believe matters.

Focusing on what matters means saying no to things that don’t matter. Otherwise, your life becomes cluttered with distractions.

Albert Einstein said: It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.

to make the most of your life, say no to things that don’t matter, work hard at what you love, and occasionally take time away from your core focus to rest so that your mind can be quiet for great insights to come.

If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep. -Dale Carnegie

The lesson to me is that you can focus on something going well, or something beautiful, or something interesting -- even amidst terrible times.

As a professor of mine once said: if you think the table you are sitting at will fly, you have a problem.

Winston Churchill said: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there. - Charlie Munger

As a wise investor I know likes to say, people become “more so” over time.

The biggest mistake men make when they think about getting married is they assume women won’t change; the biggest mistake women make is they assume they can change men.

Character is like a tree, and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. - Abraham Lincoln

Do what you think is right. Don't follow other people blindly. Be honest and keep your word. Admit your mistakes.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. - Plato

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy, you must have somebody to divide it with. -- Mark Twain

Our time on earth is limited, but you can extend your influence by helping those who will outlive you.

With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die. - Abraham Lincoln

I’ve found you can choose to let all the things that go wrong in life depress you. Or, you can accept that things will go wrong, try to laugh, and then look at what you can do. There’s a Japanese proverb that gets right to the point: We’re fools whether we dance or not -- so we might as well dance.

Mark Twain in mind: The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

There are but three events in a man’s life: birth, life and death. He is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live. - Jean de la Bruyere

“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness”.

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. -W. Edwards Deming

Alexander Graham Bell said: “When one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

Mark Twain is alleged to have said: History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.

Josh Billings noted: It ain’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that just ain’t so.

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson

As Benjamin Franklin wrote: “You may delay, but time will not”.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein

Know yourself.

Act on that knowledge.

Observe.

Focus.

Persevere.

Manage change.

Make friends.

Care.

Judgment matters.

Laugh.