Bobby Powers > Bobby's Quotes

“A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting.”
― Walter Mosley, The Long Fall

“He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Selected Writings

“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.”
― W. Somerset Maugham

“Man cannot be freed by the same injustice that enslaved it.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“The measure of a man is what he does when he has power.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. what a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius,” Nietzsche said. “For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking. . . . To call someone ‘divine’ means: ‘here there is no need to compete.”
― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“The guardians of high culture will try to convince you that the arts belong only to a chosen few, but they are wrong and they are also annoying. We are all the chosen few. We are all makers by design.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“Do you want to study under the great teachers? Is that it? Well, you can find them anywhere. They live on the shelves of your library; they live on the walls of museums; they live in recordings made decades ago. Your teachers don’t even need to be alive to educate you masterfully. No living writer has ever taught me more about plotting and characterization than Charles Dickens has taught me—and needless to say, I never met with him during office hours to discuss it. All I had to do in order to learn from Dickens was to spend years privately studying his novels like they were holy scripture, and then to practice like the devil on my own.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.”
― Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn.”
― T S Eliot

“Don't throw any of yourself away. Don't worry about a grand scheme or unified vision for your work. Don't worry about unity--what unifies your work is the fact that you made it. One day you'll look back and it will all make sense.”
― Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

“Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.”
― G. K. Chesterton

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
― Isaac Asimov

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

“You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.”
― Henry Ford

“I think perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when actually it's just terrified. Because underneath that shiny veneer, perfectionism is nothing more that a deep existential angst the says, again and again, 'I am not good enough and I will never be good enough.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“Remember, it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed, you must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we not respond impulsively to impressions; take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control.”
― Epictetus, The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness

“What makes you different or weird—that’s your strength.”
― Meryl Streep

“What I will teach you is the ability to become rich as speedily as possible. How excited you are to hear the news! And rightly so; I will lead you by a shortcut to the greatest wealth. . . . My dear Lucilius, not wanting something is just as good as having it. The important thing either way is the same – freedom from worry.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do, sir?”
― John Maynard Keynes

“Aim for early wins in areas important to the boss. Whatever your own priorities, figure out what your boss cares about most. What are his priorities and goals, and how do your actions fit into this picture? Once you know, aim for early results in those areas. One good way is to focus on three things that are important to your boss and discuss what you’re doing about them every time you interact.”
― Michael D. Watkins, The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter

“Remember: simply displaying a genuine desire to learn and understand translates into increased credibility and influence.”
― Michael D. Watkins, The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter