Stillness Is the Key Quotes

“To understand all is to forgive all. To love all is to be at peace with all, including yourself.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness Is the Key

“Always think about what you’re really being asked to give. Because the answer is often a piece of your life, usually in exchange for something you don’t even want. Remember, that’s what time is. It’s your life, it’s your flesh and blood, that you can never get back. In every situation ask: What is it? Why does it matter? Do I need it? Do I want it? What are the hidden costs? Will I look back from the distant future and be glad I did it? If I never knew about it at all—if the request was lost in the mail, if they hadn’t been able to pin me down to ask me—would I even notice that I missed out? When we know what to say no to, we can say yes to the things that matter.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness Is the Key

“It’s difficult to understand yourself if you are never by yourself. It’s difficult to have much in the way of clarity and insight if your life is a constant party and your home is a construction site.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness Is the Key

“People don’t have enough silence in their lives because they don’t have enough solitude. And they don’t get enough solitude because they don’t seek out or cultivate silence.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness Is the Key

“He would come to call solitude his vocation. As he wrote: To pray and work in the morning and to labor and rest in the afternoon, and to sit still again in meditation in the evening when night falls upon that land and when the silence fills itself with darkness and with stars. This is a true and special vocation. There are few who are willing to belong completely to such silence, to let it soak into their bones, to breathe nothing but silence, to feed on silence, and to turn the very substance of their life into a living and vigilant silence.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness Is the Key

“In shutting up—even if only for a short period—we can finally hear what the world has been trying to tell us.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“but life is much more of a marathon than it is a sprint. In a way, this is the distinction between confidence and ego.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“The gift of free will is that in this life we can choose to be good or we can choose to be bad.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“This moment we are experiencing right now is a gift (that’s why we call it the present).”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“a master’s reply to a student who asked where he might find Zen: “You are seeking for an ox while you are yourself on it.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“La palabra griega para denominar la sabiduría era sophia, que en latín se convirtió en sapientia (y por eso al hombre se le llamó Homo sapiens).”
― Ryan Holiday, La quietud es la clave

“The ticking of the hands of your watch is telling you how time is passing away, never to return. Listen to it.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“So we ignore the noise. We zero in on what’s essential. We sit with presence. We sit with our journals. We empty our minds.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“stillness is the river and the railroad junction through which so much depends. It is the key . . . To thinking clearly. To seeing the whole chessboard. To making tough decisions. To managing our 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. Stillness is the key to, well, just about everything.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key: An Ancient Strategy for Modern Life

“Too much of our lives is defined by noise. Headphones go in
(noise-canceling headphones so that we can better hear . . . noise).”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness Is the Key

“The work we must do next is less cerebral and more spiritual. It’s work located in the heart and in the soul, and not in the mind. Because it is our soul that is the key to our happiness (or our unhappiness), contentment (or discontent), moderation (or gluttony), and stillness (or perturbation). That is why those who seek stillness must come to . . . Develop a strong moral compass. Steer clear of envy and jealousy and harmful desires. Come to terms with the painful wounds of their childhood. Practice gratitude and appreciation for the world around them. Cultivate relationships and love in their lives. Place belief and control in the hands of something larger than themselves. Understand that there will never be “enough” and that the unchecked pursuit of more ends only in bankruptcy. Our soul is where we secure our happiness and unhappiness, contentment or emptiness—and ultimately, determine the extent of our greatness. We must maintain a good one.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“alcanzar la apatheia, como ellos la llamaban—, aun si el mundo estaba en guerra. “Puedes estar seguro de que estás en paz contigo mismo”, escribió Séneca, “cuando ningún ruido te toca y ninguna palabra te distrae, así se trate de un halago, una amenaza o un mero y persistente zumbido.” En estas condiciones, nada podía tocar a los estoicos (ni siquiera un emperador perturbado), ninguna emoción podía inquietarlos, ninguna amenaza era capaz de interrumpirlos y disponían para su vital disfrute de cada instante del presente.”
― Ryan Holiday, La quietud es la clave

“To hold the mind still is an enormous discipline,”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“Sigmund Freud himself wrote about how common it is for deficiencies, big and small, at a young age to birth toxic, turbulent attitudes in adulthood.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“Virtue is not holiness, but rather moral and civic excellence in the course of daily life. It’s a sense of pure rightness that emerges from our souls and is made real through the actions we take.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“Mental stillness will be short-lived if our hearts are on fire, or our souls ache with emptiness.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“what’s happening on the surface of the water doesn’t matter—it’s what’s going on below that will kill you.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“We were given two ears and only one mouth for a reason,”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“The world is like muddy water. To see through it, we have to let things settle.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“We were given two ears and only one mouth for a reason, the philosopher Zeno observed.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“Our stillness depends on our ability to slow down and choose not to be angry, to run on different fuel. Fuel that helps us win and build, and doesn’t hurt other people, our cause, or our chance at peace.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“Conversely, choosing partners and friends who do the opposite endangers both career and happiness.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“It is also true that the single best decision you can make in life, professionally and personally, is to find a partner who complements and supports you and makes you better and for whom you do the same.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“The verse in The Daodejing: The greatest misfortune is to not know contentment. The word calamity is the desire to acquire. And so those who know the contentment of contentment are always content.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key

“The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
― Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key