Doing more of what doesn’t work won’t make it work any better.
—Charles J. Givens (1941–98) American Self-Help Writer
The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition.
—Dwight Morrow (1873–1931) American Businessman, Diplomat
You have not done enough, you have never done enough, so long as it is still possible that you have something to contribute.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
In the blood of the martyrs to intolerance are the seeds of unbelief.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
After you’ve been doing inquiry for a while, if you have the thought “She doesn’t love me,” you just get the immediate turnaround with a smile: “Oh, I’m not loving myself in this moment”.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The key to having more time is doing less, and there are two paths to get there, both of which should be used together: (1) Define a short to-do list and (2) define a not-to-do list.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
One of the fundamental differences between the Victim Orientation and this one [Creator] is where you put your focus of attention…For Victims, the focus is always on what they don’t want: the problems that seem constantly to multiply in their lives. They don’t want the person, condition, or circumstance they consider their Persecutor, and they don’t want the fear that leads to fight, flee or freeze reactions, either. Creators, on the other hand, place their focus on what they do want. Doing this, Creators still face and solve problems in the course of creating outcomes they want, but their focus remains fixed on their ultimate vision.
—David Emerald
A cheery relaxation is man’s natural state, just as nature itself is relaxed. A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
—William J. H. Boetcker (1873–1962) American Presbyterian Minister
If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Intellect helps us to see the best means and manner of doing the right thing, but intellect never shows us the right thing.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what is required.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Do you want to be right more than you want to know the truth? It’s the truth that set me free. Acceptance, peace, and less attachment to a world of suffering are all effects of doing The Work. They’re not the goals. Do The Work for the love of freedom, for the love of truth.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
To do is to be.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
An affirmation states that a goal is already happening. I’m not crazy about this because, often when we affirm something that is not yet real, the little voice in our head usually responds with “This isn’t true, this is BS…On the other hand, a declaration is not saying something is true, it’s saying we have an intention of doing or being something. This is a position the little voice can buy, because we’re not stating it’s true right now, but again, it’s an intention for us ion the future.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Cast out pride and vanity; have no thought of trying to rule over others or of outdoing them.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
What I call “doing the dishes” is the practice of loving the task in front of you. Your inner voice guides you all day long to do simple things such as brush your teeth, drive to work, call your friend, or do the dishes. Even though it’s just another story, it’s a very short story, and when you follow the direction of the voice, the story ends. We are really alive when we live as simply as that—open, waiting, trusting, and loving to do what appears in front of us now…What we need to do unfolds before us, always—doing the dishes, paying the bills, picking up the children’s socks, brushing our teeth. We never receive more than we can handle, and there is always just one thing to do. Whether you have ten dollars or ten million dollars, life never gets more difficult than that.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
An acre of performance is worth the whole world of promise.
—Jeremiah Brown Howell
The most important thing is for you to be your own best friend. Whatever you are doing—don’t put yourself down. Slowly begin to discover which, for you, is the path of the heart. Which path in life will make you grow? That is the path to take.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
The way to do is to be.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
I saw that we’re all doing the best we can. This is how a lifetime of humility begins.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Do to others as you would have others do to you, inspires all men with that other maxim of natural goodness a great deal less perfect, but perhaps more useful: Do good to yourself with as little prejudice as you can to others.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
Oh what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time.
—Richard Cecil
I will just create, and if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, I’ll create something else. I don’t have any limitations on what I think I could do or be.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
Success follows doing what you want to do. There is no other way to be successful.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Too many of those with unrealized aspirations have set them aside due to fear of failure. The bigger the dream, the greater the fear. Doing less than our best allays this fear. I could have done better if I’d tried, we assure ourselves. Among the least appreciated reasons for doing superficial, second-rate work of any kind is the comfort of knowing it’s not our best that’s on the line. By not trying too hard, we avoid learning what our true potential is, and having to fulfill it. Doing our best can be deeply threatening. It forces us to consider what we’re actually capable of accomplishing. Once we learn that lesson, we can’t unlearn it. Our true potential becomes both a shining light we can follow and an oppressive burden of expectation that might, or might not, be met.
—Unknown
To excel means to reach beyond the best you have ever given because doing so matters to you personally, for its own sake. It means to run your own race—as an individual, team, or organization. To excel is to know your greatest strengths and passions, and to emphasize them while honestly admitting and managing your weaknesses.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
It seems mutants have something in their lives called gravy. They know truth, but it is buried under thickening and spices of convenience, materialism, insecurity, and fear. They also have something called frosting. It seems to represent how they spend almost all the seconds of their existence in doing superficial, artificial, temporary, pleasant-tasting, nice appearing projects and spend very few actual seconds of their lives developing their eternal beingness.
—Marlo Morgan (1937–98) American Novelist, Author
It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do for which we are accountable.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
Anything that we have to learn we learn by the actual doing of it… we become just by performing just acts, temperate by performing temperate ones, brave by performing brave ones.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
But when you think you’re supposed to do something with it and imagine that you’re the doer, that’s pure delusion. Just follow your passion. Do what you love. Inquire, and have a happy life while you’re doing it.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Knowing and not doing are equal to not knowing at all.
—Unknown
To be a top performer you have to be passionately committed to what you’re doing and insanely confident about your ability to pull it off.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. It’s something that we make happen, and it results from doing our best. Feeling fulfilled when we live up to our potentialities is what motivates differentiation and leads to evolution.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
If everybody feels fear when approaching something totally new in life, yet so many are out there “doing it” despite the fear, then we must conclude that fear is not the problem.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
The most effective way I know to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed. It focused on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
Believe it or not, it is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory. Enter the world of elimination.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Being selective—doing less—is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
The top players in every field think differently when all the marbles are on the line. Great performers focus on what they are doing, and nothing else…They let it happen, let it go. They couldn’t care less about the results.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Reality doesn’t wait for your opinion, vote, or permission, sweetheart. It just keeps being what it is and doing what it does.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
No man needs sympathy because he has to work. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
I’ve always believed in magic. When I wasn’t doing anything in this town, I’d go up every night, sit on Mulholland Drive, look out at the city, stretch out my arms, and say, “Everybody wants to work with me. I’m a really good actor. I have all kinds of great movie offers”. I’d just repeat these things over and over, literally convincing myself that I had a couple movies lined up. I’d drive down that hill, ready to take the world on, going, “Movie offers are out there for me, I just don’t hear them yet”. It was like total affirmations, antidotes to the stuff that stems from my family background.
—Jim Carrey (b.1962) Canadian Actor, Comedian
Where you are is of no moment, but only what you are doing there. It is not the place that ennobles you, but you the place; and this only by doing that which is great and noble.
—Petrarch (1304–74) Italian Scholar, Poet, Humanist