Sanjay Krishna

Collected from various sources. Favourites are highlighted in green.

• “If you want unusual things, you often have to be willing to move unusually.”

• "The only competition I’ve come to love is the one against myself, and that’s not really a competition, now is it? The progress of betterment. Playing your part to the best of your abilities in a beautiful whole.

  That’s the joy I take away from racing cars for endurance. It’s not so much being faster than the other cars, but striving to perfect your own contribution as part of a team. Pushing against the limits of perfect execution over the long term. 24 hours of testing your capability to avoid mistake and fatigue. Winning is almost incidental to that."

• "I've always thought of myself as an 80 percenter. I like to throw myself passionately into a sport or activity until I reach about an 80 percent proficiency level. To go beyond that requires an obsession that doesn't appeal to me." ~Yvon Chouinard

• “The biggest heartbreak wasn’t watching the system fail good people; it was watching some of those same people get reshaped by it. They began to mirror the very patterns they once recognized and resisted, because that was the model of “leadership” around them.”

• “A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.” ~Tolstoy

• "When I notice myself worrying about 'what other people will think,' I find I'm usually not worried about any single person's opinion.

  If I pick a specific person, I'm rarely concerned about what they will think. What I fear is the collective opinion in my head. It's imaginary."

• "Three qualities that have nothing to do with talent or intelligence, but can make a dramatic impact on your results:

  • Cheerful. You are pleasant to work with and generally raise the level of energy in the room.
  • Accountable. You feel personally responsible for what you want to accomplish. It is not someone else's job. It's your job.
  • Adaptable. You can find alternate paths to success. You don't need things to be a certain way to be happy."

• "You can't plan to meet the people who will change your life. I am invited to speak at Stanford's business school once or twice a year, and I always try to do it. I had accepted an invitation to speak one Thursday late in the afternoon, and I wasn't feeling very well and I had a dinner later that evening with some important customers up at a winery on Page Mill Road. The room for my talk wasn't large enough, and all the seats were full so some of the students were sitting in the aisles. One of the professors asked them to clear the aisles in case a fire marshal should appear, and one girl who was being evicted quickly sat down in one of the four seats they had left vacant in the front row for me and whatever entourage I might be bringing. When I arrived alone and sat down in the front row, it didn't take me long to notice this really cute girl sitting next to me. I think she was stunned when it was me that got up to speak. And I knew something was up when I was staring at her, forgetting what I was talking about mid-sentence. After my talk, I stayed around to speak with some students, and she stayed too. But then she left. I didn't know who she was, and thought I might never see her again. So I wound things up and left too, and I caught up with her in the parking lot. I asked her if she would have dinner with me. on Saturday.

  She said yes and gave me her phone number. As I was walking to my car, I asked myself: "If this was the last day of my life, would I rather have dinner with the important customers or her?" I raced back to her car, just as she was about to drive off, and asked her "How about dinner tonight?" She said: "Sure," and we were married 18 months later. Yea, it might have worked out if I had waited until Saturday night, and those customers might have given us a few more orders if I had shown up.

  But who knows, maybe she had a hot date Friday night and things would have turned out much differently..... You can't plan to meet the people who will change your life. It just happens. Maybe its random, maybe its fate. Either way, you can't plan for it. But you want to recognize it when it happens, and have the courage and clarity of mind to grab onto it." ~Steve Jobs

• Tolstoy on shortening the distance between where you are and where you want to go:

  “A man on a thousand-mile walk has to forget his ultimate goal and say to himself every morning, ‘Today I’m going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.’”

• Singer Jewel shares her formula for happiness:

  “Do things that lend themselves to the happiness you desire. Exercise. Eat well. Do something that makes you feel joy, even when you don’t feel like it. Surround yourself with people you admire and who add substance to your life.”

• Everyone wants the summary. But the summary is what's left after someone else decided what matters. Their priorities aren't yours. Their filters aren't yours. When you operate on summaries, you're thinking with someone else's brain.

• Time is not just numbers on a clock - it’s slices of our life that we give away. When we work, we’re not just trading hours for money; we’re trading pieces of our existence that we could have spent with family, friends, or pursuing what we truly love.

  Our life is actually just a series of such hours - moments that we’ll never get back. We often think we have infinite time ahead of us, living in the comforting illusion of “years” that stretch endlessly forward. But when we start seeing our life in hours instead of years, everything shifts. Each hour becomes precious, meaningful, a conscious choice of how we’re spending our finite existence.

  The truth is unsettling but liberating: we don’t have forever. Once we truly understand this, we can no longer postpone figuring out what we want from life. “Later” is a luxury we can’t afford because “later” is made up of these very hours we’re living through right now.

  So many of us are running on autopilot, taking jobs that are “fine for now,” staying in situations that don’t fulfill us because we’ll “eventually” figure out our true path. But that “eventually” is composed of thousands of real hours of our actual lives - hours we’re giving away while waiting to start living.

  Life doesn’t happen in the someday or the eventually. It happens in hours - this hour, the next hour. And once we truly understand this, we can’t help but seek clarity.

  The question isn’t just “What do I want to do with my life?” but rather “What do I want to do with this hour, and the next, and the next?” Because those hours - not some distant future - are where our life actually exists. ~Gautam Shankar, On the value of our hours

• Life happens backwards.

  You only understand it after it’s already happened. After the job you quit becomes the best decision you ever made. After the heartbreak teaches you something no romance ever could. After the so-called failure cracks you open just enough to grow.

  I used to think decisions needed clarity. That before taking a step, I had to know where it would lead. So I did what most overthinkers do. I sat with it. I journaled. I listed pros and cons. I made spreadsheets of outcomes that never came.

  I was in a loop. A perfect storm of analysis paralysis.
  Too many thoughts. Too little action.

  I did that because I was scared.
  Of picking the wrong path.
  Of wasting time.
  Of regretting something I couldn’t undo.

  And yet, every major shift in my life happened when I moved before I was ready. When I quit a job not knowing where I’d go next. When I went for an impromptu meeting without preparation. When I wrote and posted something that my brain hadn’t approved but my body knew was right.

  It’s only in looking back that the pattern becomes clear.
  It didn’t look like clarity then. It looked like chaos.

  In physics, there’s something called retarded time.
  You never see an object as it is. You see it as it was. Because light, even at its unimaginable speed, takes time to travel. The sun you see is the sun from eight minutes ago. The stars are already dead by the time their glow reaches us.

  Our understanding works the same way.
  We don’t perceive life as it is. We perceive it as it was.
  Clarity isn’t immediate. It’s retrospective.

  Modiji didn’t know he would become the PM of India.
  SRK didn’t know Bombay would make him last of the stars.
  Kohli didn’t know that playing through grief would etch his name into one of India's greatest cricket legend.
  They didn’t wait for certainty. They acted. And meaning followed.

  The mistake is thinking we need to know before we move.
  But knowing is a luxury.
  Choosing is a necessity.

  And so now, when I’m caught in that same loop, staring at timelines, questioning the timing, fearing the unknown, I remind myself:
  Clarity is a consequence. Not a prerequisite.
  The fog isn’t failure. It’s just a stretch of road your mind hasn’t mapped yet.

  If it feels hard, that’s not a red flag. That’s data.
  If you feel stuck, you’re probably just mid-swing in a much larger arc.
  If you’re doubting, it means you’re growing.

  Because life, like quantum particles, doesn’t settle until you observe it.
  And sometimes, you have to act first and understand later.

  The question isn’t: Do I know enough to begin?
  The real question is: Am I brave enough to begin without knowing?

  Because meaning doesn’t come from standing still.
  It comes from walking.
  And trusting that somewhere down the road
  What feels like confusion today
  Will become your favourite paragraph in the story you didn’t know you were writing.

• "any moment where you are not into that moment then you are dead to that moment".

• "The best coaches don't have the answers, they have the questions"

• Like many from my generation (the 90s kids), I’ve often felt that quiet hum of restlessness. Somewhere along the way, I think we lost touch — not with technology or trends, but with a sense of purpose.

  Not in a dramatic way. We’re still around, showing up, swiping, working. But if you really look at it, many of us are quietly struggling with a sense of purpose. There’s this fog we carry, a kind of restlessness. A lot of people talk about depression and burnout. I think a part of it has to do with how little we have left to do that actually feels meaningful.

  Let me explain.

  Take something as basic as getting groceries. There was a time when that meant walking to the local store, picking out vegetables, feeling them in your hand, bargaining a bit, saying hello to the shopkeeper. You'd think through what you want to eat the next day. It was mundane, but real. Now, your groceries arrive in minutes and dinner shows up before the reel ends.

  It’s efficient, sure. But it’s also empty. There’s a difference between convenience and laziness. And sometimes, I think the line got blurry. These apps have built their entire business on top of our laziness—and honestly, they’re winning (& killing local economy. See comments). But what are we losing?

  We’re losing small routines that made us feel human. That daily walk to the store, the simple joy of making a good cup of chai, the random chat with the guy at the counter—these were small wins, and small wins matter. When you pick out your own groceries, you're not just shopping. You're deciding, you're being mindful, you're staying in touch with your needs and with the world outside your phone.

  But if everything arrives at your doorstep before you even think about it, what’s left for your brain to chew on?

  I see this especially in urban places like Kochi, where people default to delivery for everything. It's not always about time or convenience. Sometimes, it’s just... apathy. You don’t want to think. You don’t want to deal. But ironically, it’s in dealing with life’s tiniest frictions that we learn how to live.

  Some things might seem meaningless on the surface—picking the right tomato, brewing your own tea, choosing what shirt to wear—but this is where meaning hides. It's not waiting for you in some big grand revelation. It's tucked away in small, quiet rituals.

  When you don’t have those, and when your mind goes idle, that’s when the heaviness creeps in. The dullness. The scrolling. The sense that something’s missing, but you can’t quite name it.

  Maybe it’s that we gave up too many of life’s little chores, and in return, we lost the chance to feel alive.

  Just a thought. ~Abid Aboobaker

• Life is made of moments. The little moments that slip through your fingers if you're not paying attention. Like your cat purring on the sofa. Watching your favourite tv show with your girlfriend. Feeling safe in a space you never thought you could be safe in.

  You think you'll remember the big moments but you won't. Here's why. Big moments come with baggage. Expectations. Pressure. You're so busy trying to make them perfect, to feel what you're supposed to feel, that you forget to actually feel anything at all.

  Take Christmas Day. Everyone tells you it's supposed to be this magical, joyous time. But for me? It never lived up to the hype. There's too much forced celebration. I'm expected to smile and be merry on cue. It's like being an actor in a play I never auditioned for. The whole charade becomes a blur of faces, forced smiles, and anxiety. Not just Christmas - all those supposedly big moments. Getting married, big birthday bashes - they all crumple under the weight of expectation.

  But little moments? They sneak up on you. No warning. No time to overthink. They're pure, unfiltered life. A laugh that catches you off guard. The way sunlight hits a raindrop on a leaf. Your dog's tail wagging when you come home. These stick because they're real. Raw. Unplanned.

  It's like trying to grab water. The tighter you squeeze, the more slips away. Big moments are you squeezing hard, desperate to hold on. Little moments? They're when you open your hand and let the water pool naturally. That's what your mind holds onto.

  That's why we can remember them so vividly.

  The way her hair smells in the morning. The way my cat looks at me when he hears rumpling in the kitchen and is expecting a treat.

  Life is made of little moments.

  Savour them like you've been starved of water in a desert. The way you do this is by paying attention. You don't need to meditate, or be mindful. You just need to pay attention.

  When you do, the world changes. It's like your senses wake up. You start noticing things you've walked past a thousand times before. Colours get brighter. Sounds clearer. The everyday becomes a treasure hunt of newness.

  And that's when it'll hit you - all the life you've been missing. It's like you've been sleepwalking, and someone just shook you awake. And then you’ll get upset at all the little moments you’ll never remember.

  For all the life you've missed.

  I say this because I've lost so many little moments. Too caught up in my own head. Too busy waiting for a big moment to finally arrive so I can languish in it. Like when I was in medical school.

  I was so focused on graduating, on chasing status and success of being the first in my family to become a doctor, that I missed out on the joy of the process. I was too busy being Draco Malfoy when I should've been Harry Potter. Cherishing friendships and small victories. In hindsight, I was foolish and naive. The diploma was just a piece of paper, but the connections and experiences I rushed past? Those were the real treasures.

  Don't be like me, losing years to distraction or elusive goals. Pay attention.

• The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

• quit brainrot. unfollow trolls. read essays. go down rabbit holes. have a calendar. maintain a todo list. read old books. watch old movies. turn on dnd. walk with intent. eat without youtube. chew more. train without music. plan for 15 mins. execute. organise your desk. take something seriously. read ancient scripts. act fast. find bread. eat clean. journal. save a life. learn to code. read poetry. create art. stay composed. refine your speech. optimise for efficiency. act sincere. help people. be kind. stop doing things that waste your time. follow your intuition. craft reputation. learn persuasion. systemise your day (or don’t). write. write. write. write more. iterate violently. leave your phone at home. walk to the grocery store. talk to strangers. feed the dogs. visit bookstores. look for 1800s novels. experience art. then love. sit with a monk and offer them lunch. don't talk shit about people. embody virtue. sit alone. do something with your life. what do you want to create? turn off your mind. play. play a sport. combat sports. notice fonts in trees. fall in love. notice patterns on a table. visualise it. talk to people with respect. don't hate. be loving. be real. become yourself. cherrypick your qualities. discard the useless. rejections aren't permanent. invite what aligns. accept what does not. read great people. be different. choose different. do great work. let it consume you. lose your mind. value your time. experience life. ~Gaurav

• What most people who've found breakthrough success have in common is that they weren't trying to aim for breakthrough success.

  So, what were they doing instead? They were sniffing around to discover and follow the path they deemed most interesting. This obviously isn't guaranteed to give success either. There are lots of things we find interesting that don't amount to much (in fact, that's the default case). But, by following the gradient of interestingness, you're increasing your chances of stumbling upon success

• People only really learn when they’re surprised. If they’re not surprised, then what you told them just fits in with what they already know. No minds were changed. No new perspective. Just more information.

  So my main advice to anyone preparing to give a talk on stage is to cut out everything from your talk that’s not surprising. (Nobody has ever complained that a talk was too short.)

  Use this rule in all your public writing. If you already found something surprising in what you’re presenting, then remove everything else. If you haven’t found something surprising about it yet, keep looking until you do.

• "Staving off death is a thing that you have to work at. Left to itself-and that is what it is when it dies the body tends to revert to a state of equilibrium with its environment. If you measure some quantity such as the temperature, the acidity, the water content or the electrical potential in a living body, you will typically find that it is markedly different from the corresponding measure in the surroundings. Our bodies, for instance, are usually hotter than our surroundings, and in cold climates they have to work hard to maintain the differential. When we die the work stops, the temperature differential starts to disappear, and we end up the same temperature as our surroundings. Not all animals work so hard to avoid coming into equilibrium with their surrounding temperature, but all animals do some comparable work. For instance, in a dry country, animals and plants work to maintain the fluid content of their cells, work against a natural tendency for water to flow from them into the dry outside world. If they fail they die. More generally, if living things didn't work actively to prevent it, they would eventually merge into their surroundings, and cease to exist as autonomous beings. That is what happens when they die."

• “No matter what, expect the unexpected. And whenever possible BE the unexpected.” ~Lynda Barry

• Marc Andreessen about Elon Musk:

  • Elon inspires incredible loyalty from his employees because they know he'll sit all night with them to solve a problem. “Elon actually delegates almost everything. He's not involved in most of the things that his companies are doing. He's involved in the thing that is the biggest problem right now until that thing is fixed. And then, he doesn't have to be involved in it anymore, he can go focus on the next thing that's the biggest problem for that company right now.
  • In any manufacturing chain, there's always some bottleneck, something that is keeping the manufacturing line from running the way that it's supposed to. Whatever the bottleneck, it's holding everything up. The job number one is to remove that bottleneck and get everything flowing again. I think Elon basically has universalized that concept and he basically looks at every company like it's some sort of conceptual assembly line. I don't need to manage everything else because everything else, by definition, is running better than that. I can go focus on that.
  • He's not asking the VP of Engineering to ask the Director of Engineering to ask the manager to ask the individual contributor to write a report that's to be reviewed in three weeks. He doesn't do that. He would throw them all out of the window. There's just no way he would do that. He goes and personally finds the engineer who actually has the knowledge about the thing, and then he sits in the room with that engineer and fixes the problem with them.

• But again, I think that patience, more than anything else, is necessary if you want to establish and maintain a writing life. Patience is what will keep you working over the long term, help you maintain your faith in your work and grow into your ambitions. Patience is what you need in order to rest and then return to your toughest project, that book you want to write, when you’re at the end of a week or a month of bad writing days, alone at your desk, without peers or teachers or anyone who can do the work with you, and there is no guarantee that you will finish what you’ve begun or convince others to see its potential. If you have the patience to write after and through times like that, you’ll have made it a habit—something you can do from muscle memory—and hopefully, you can keep showing up for yourself and your work for years to come.

• "I figured I'd probably write 50 scripts in my life. Out of those 50, I figured maybe five would be produced, and that maybe one or two would be successful. So I always kind of expected I'd write at least one successful film in my life. [...] The way it all came together was kind of like Murphy's law in reverse—I don't expect that kind of experience again any time soon." ~Michael Arndt

• "Lebenslanger Schicksalsschatz" is not something that develops over time. It is something that happens instantaneously. It courses through you like the water of a river after a storm, filling you and emptying you all at once. You feel it throughout your body, in your hands, in your heart, in your stomach, in your skin... have you ever felt this way about someone?" ~Klaus, HIMYM (Farhampton)

• "I had this beautiful little domain. It was all mine. I was the emperor, the captain of it, and it was quite commodious. I had warm coffee, even."

• ‘When death finds you, may it find you alive.’

• “Sometimes love means taking a step back. If you care about somebody, you should want them to be happy even if you wind up being left out.” ~Ted Mosby

• Dreaming is free. You can’t be stingy with dreams

• Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to remove.

• "You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do not bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear." ~Victor Hugo

• “They didn’t leave you on read. You left them speechless” — future.

• I am out with lanterns, looking for myself. -

• This scene is relatable especially for people who don’t know what it looks like when most of their lives is all about yelling, screaming, criticism, and low self worth. I cried because hearing her words it’s so beautiful but to people who don’t know that feeling of genuine love it’s so hard to accept that we deserve too and bear in this moment catastrophizes relationships and pushes away. Made me realize bear to me personally I am deserving of that.

• "Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed pope mobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once." ~Anthony Bourdain

• "To be a scientist is to be naive. We are so focused on our search for the truth we fail to consider how few actually want us to find it" ~Valery Legasov

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• You will now confront one of modern society’s ever-present dangers, which is the risk of distraction we face whenever nothing interesting happens for a few minutes.
• "You should never turn a man's generosity as a sword against him. Any virtue that a man has, even if he has many vices, should not be used as a tool against him." ~Rabi to Feynman
• "Anybody who cares less about wanting to be cool, I think, is more interesting." ~Aimee Mann
• "Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all." ~Winston Churchill -
• “I’m the kind of person who likes to be by himself. To put a finer point on it, I’m the type of person who doesn’t find it painful to be alone. I find spending an hour or two every day running alone, not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours alone at my desk, to be neither difficult nor boring. I’ve had this tendency ever since I was young, when, given a choice, I much preferred reading books on my own or concentrating on listening to music over being with someone else. I could always think of things to do by myself.” ~Haruki Murakami
• "We are the masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out." ~Churchill

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• “I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.” ~Sylvia Plath

• "India is a country where if we shared notes, we think we could not score good marks. This is the zero-sum mindset we have. In entrepreneurship, we could all become extremely wealthy by sharing notes." ~Kunal Shah

• "For a successful technology," Feynman concluded, "reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

• "Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics." ~first paragraph of David Goodstein's States of Matter

• "More broadly, nobody is going to teach you to think for yourself. A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Internalize this and practice coming up with your own worldview. The correlation between it and those around you shouldn't be too strong unless you think you were especially lucky in your initial conditions." ~Patrick Collison

• "Steve used to say to me — and he used to say this a lot — 'Hey Jony, here’s a dopey idea.' And sometimes they were. Really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful. But sometimes they took the air from the room and they left us both completely silent. Bold, crazy, magnificent ideas. Or quiet simple ones, which in their subtlety, their detail, they were utterly profound. And just as Steve loved ideas, and loved making stuff, he treated the process of creativity with a rare and a wonderful reverence. You see, I think he better than anyone understood that while ideas ultimately can be so powerful, they begin as fragile, barely formed thoughts, so easily missed, so easily compromised, so easily just squished." ~Jony Ive

• “Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.” ~Matsuo Basho

• "When you reach out to other people, half the time they don’t respond, but half the time they do. It’s asymmetric; it doesn’t really cost too much when they don’t, and it can be incredibly rewarding when they do. If I did not do that, I would have missed out on a huge amount." ~Patrick Collison

• "There is a difference between knowing the path & walking the path" ~Morpheus, The Matrix

• “I can’t begin to tell you the things I discovered while I was looking for something else.” ~Shelby Foote

• “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” ~H. S. Truman

• “I would never again be made a foot soldier in a conflict I did not understand.” ~Tara Westover

• “The past was a ghost, insubstantial, unaffecting. Only the future had weight.” ~Tara Westover

• “I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.” ~Andy Bernard (Nard Dog)

• “When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it. The minute you understand that you can poke life and that if you push something in, something will pop out the other side. That you can change it and you can mold it…that may be the most important thing, to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.” ~Steve Jobs

• “Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” ~George S. Patton

• "You've got to be a really good talent scout because no matter how smart you are, you need a team of great people. You've got to figure out how to size people up fairly quickly, make decisions without knowing people too well and hire them and see how you do and refine your intuition ... because you need great people around you." ~Steve Jobs

• “It could be tedious, sleep-inducing work. So I came up with an idea. I’d send a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints with every paper that needed to be reviewed. 'Thank you for agreeing to do this,' I’d write. 'The enclosed Thin Mints are your reward. But no fair eating them until you review the paper.'” ~Randy Pausch

• “Others, like Richard Feynman, the theoretical physicist, manage never to lose their ability to come up with fresh ideas. In other words, they learn to nurture their unconscious, and to trust it. Feynman spent a lot of time playing the drums. The great mathematician John Conway spent much of his time playing games. Playing...keeps you ‘fresh.’” ~John Cleese

• “It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech." ~Mark Twain

• “Strong opinions, kindly held, never yelled." ~Shreyas Doshi

• "If you want to build a ship, don’t drum people up together to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work. Rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

• "Design like you're right; listen like you're wrong." ~John Lilly

• "The sensible answer is to listen, absorb, discuss, be able to defend any design decision with clarity and reason, know when to pick your battles and know when to let go." ~Speider Schneider

• “We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again and that is well but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.” ~Mark Twain

• “If you have nothing to say, say nothing.” ~Mark Twain

• "You would not believe how difficult it is to be simple and clear. People are afraid that they may be seen as a simpleton. In reality, just the opposite is true." ~Jack Welch

• “Steve Jobs has a saying that A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players. It doesn't take long to get to Z players. This trickle-down effect causes bozo explosions in companies.” ~Guy Kawasaki

• “Simplicity is the zenith of a long, arduous journey, not the starting point.” ~Rolf Dobelli

• "You have to stick within what I call your circle of competence. You have to know what you understand and what you don't understand. It's not terribly important how big the circle is. But it is terribly important that you know where the perimeter is." ~Charlie Munger

• "Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward." ~Charlie Munger

• "My biggest punishment, my biggest revenge on you is, I’m gonna make you run this company long term. You had the baby, now you gotta raise the child. And you’re stuck with it for 18 years. I knew he wanted to sell the company.. I’m like, “No, no. You’re running this company.” And I knew he maybe could move faster than me for a year, but he wasn’t gonna keep doing it. And so that was our strategy. We built the company for the long term." ~Brian Chesky

• "When an apple has ripened and falls, why does it fall? Because of its attraction to the earth, because its stalk withers, because it is dried by the sun, because it grows heavier, because the wind shakes it, or because the boy standing below wants to eat it? Nothing is the cause. All this is only the coincidence of conditions in which all vital organic and elemental events occur. And the botanist who finds that the apple falls because the cellular tissue decays and so forth is equally right with the child who stands under the tree and says the apple fell because he wanted to eat it and prayed for it." ~Leo Tolstoy

• “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads--and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.” ~Charlie Munger

• “I wanted to be in politics but not of politics.” ~Obama

• “That was something my mother made sure I understood. Once, she found out that I had been part of a group teasing a kid at school. She sat me down and told me that there were two kinds of people in the world: Those who only think about themselves and tear others down to make themselves feel important. And those who think about how others feel and avoid doing things that might hurt them. 'So,' she asked me, 'Which kind of person do you want to be?'” ~Obama

• “I can read about what it was like to lose everything during the Great Depression. But I don’t have the emotional scars of those who actually experienced it. And the person who lived through it can’t fathom why someone like me could come across as complacent about things like owning stocks. We see the world through a different lens.” ~Morgan Housel

• “There was an owl liv'd in an oak
  The more he heard, the less he spoke
  The less he spoke, the more he heard.
  O, if men were all like that wise bird.”

• "Most people, when confronted with something they don’t understand, do not realize they don’t understand it because they’re able to come up with an explanation that makes sense based on their own unique perspective and experiences in the world, however limited those experiences are. We all want the complicated world we live in to make sense. So we tell ourselves stories to fill in the gaps of what are effectively blind spots." ~Morgan Housel

• “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” ~Sherlock Holmes

• “A genius is the man who can do the average thing when everyone else around him is losing his mind.” ~Napoleon

• "History is just one damned thing after another."

• “Revolutions can, and often have, begun with reading." ~Arundhati Roy

• "I just try and avoid being stupid. I have a way of handling a lot of problems. I put them on what I call my too-hard pile. Then I just leave them there. I'm not trying to succeed in my too-hard pile." ~Charlie Munger

• “പ്രണയത്തിന്റെയും വിരഹത്തിന്റെയും നഷ്ടത്തിന്റെയും വേദനയുടെയും അപമാനത്തിന്റെയും കരച്ചിലിന്റെയും വാക്കുകൾകൊണ്ട് നെയ്തെടുത്ത ആ പുസ്തകം എന്റെ ഹൃദയത്തെ പൊതിഞ്ഞുപിടിച്ചു. ഒരേ തരത്തിൽ മനസ്സ് പിടയുന്ന രണ്ടുപേർ തമ്മിലുള്ള കണ്ടുമുട്ടലായിരുന്നു അത്. ഒരാൾ എഴുത്തുകാരനെന്ന നിലയിലും മറ്റേയാൾ വായനക്കാരനെന്ന നിലയിലും. അതിലെ ഓരോ വരിയും എനിക്കുവേണ്ടി എഴുതിയതു പോലെയോ ഞാൻ തന്നെ എഴുതിയതുപോലെയോ എനിക്കനുഭവ പ്പെട്ടു. അവയിലൂടെ കടന്നു പോകുമ്പോൾ എന്റെ മനസ്സിലെ കത്തലു കൾക്കുമേൽ കുളിർനീര് കോരിയൊഴിച്ചതുപോലെ ഞാൻ ശാന്തനായി. പിന്നെ 'സമയം കഴിഞ്ഞു. പോകുന്നില്ലേ..?' എന്ന് ആരോ ഒരാൾ വിളിച്ചു ചോദിക്കുന്നതുവരെ ഞാനവിടെ ഇരുന്നു. അന്നത്തെ മാത്രമുള്ള ഒരിരുപ്പ് ആയിരുന്നില്ല, ജീവിതാന്ത്യത്തോളം നീളാൻ പോകുന്ന ഒരു ശീലത്തിന്റെ തുടക്കമായിരുന്നു അത്. എന്നെ ചുംബിച്ചെടുക്കാൻ തക്കം പാർത്തിരുന്ന ഒരു മഹാകയത്തിന്റെ ചുഴിപ്പിടുത്തത്തിൽനിന്നും രക്ഷിച്ച പിടിവള്ളിയും അതുതന്നെയായിരുന്നു... വായന." ~ബെന്യാമിൻ, മാന്തളിരിലെ 20 കമ്മ്യൂണിസ്റ്റ് വർഷങ്ങൾ

• “ഫ്രഞ്ചു കവിയായിരുന്ന ലമാർതീൻ തന്റെ പ്രശസ്തമായ കവിത എഴുതിയതിനെക്കുറിച്ച് പറഞ്ഞത്, മരങ്ങൾക്കിടയിലൂടെ ഒരു ദിവസം നടക്കുമ്പോൾ കവിത പൂർണ്ണമായും ഒരു വെളിപാടുപോലെ തനിക്കു ലഭിച്ചു എന്നാണ്. എന്നാൽ, അദ്ദേഹം ഈ കവിത വ്യത്യസ്ത രീതിയിൽ എഴുതിയതും എഴുതിയവതന്നെ നിരവധിതവണ വെട്ടിത്തിരുത്തിയതും മരണശേഷം കണ്ടെത്തുകയുണ്ടായി. ഈ കുറിപ്പിൽ പോലും സത്യമെത്ര നുണയെത്ര എന്ന അളവ് എടുത്താൽ സത്യമോ നുണയോ തുക്കത്തിൽ മുമ്പിൽ നിൽക്കുക എന്ന് ആർക്ക് പറയാൻ കഴിയും?" ~ഉണ്ണി ആർ

• "Life is not always black and white, it's a million shades of grey." ~Ridley Scott

• "When you are peeling an orange, just peel it with all your heart, and nothing else. When you are watching a film, don't think of what to make for dinner tonight. When you are eating a mango, forget strawberries, your mother-in-law and your impending tax returns. When you put a piece of dark chocolate in your mouth, think of nothing but the smile on your face. When you're tasting a long and slow kiss, don't worry if you've got on the perfect underwear. In the midst of making love, don't ponder how long a relationship will last. When driving on a highway, keep your mind on the road. In the middle of a beautiful dream, don't try to memorise it. Forget all they told you about multi-tasking and time management. If you're not living in the now, you're just not living, period."

• "I've always looked at those kids thinking.... What silly fools. So full of dreams. They have no idea. But maybe it doesn't matter." ~Carl Mørck, A Conspiracy of Faith

• “Either everyone feels like this a little bit and they’re just not talking about it or I am completely fucking alone.” ~Fleabag

• "I have lived my life as best I could, not knowing its purpose, but drawn forward like a moth to a distant moon; and here at last, I discover a strange truth. That I am only a conduit, for a message that eludes my understanding...Who are we, who have been so blessed to share our stories like this? To speak across centuries?" ~Ezio Auditore

• "And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

• "എല്ലാവരും പാട്ടുകൾ കേൾക്കുന്നത് നേരം പോകാനും, ആശ്വാസത്തിനും, സമാധാനത്തിനും വേണ്ടിയാണ്. എന്നാൽ ഞാൻ വരികളിൽ ജീവിക്കുന്ന വ്യക്തിയാണ്. ഇഷ്ടപ്പെട്ട വരികൾ വരുന്ന ഭാഗം പിന്നെയും പിന്നെയും കേൾക്കാറുണ്ട്. ചില വരികളിൽ ഞാൻ മരിച്ചു പോകാറുമുണ്ട്."

• “There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that kind of the point?” ~The Office

• “Storming a breach, conducting an embassy, ruling a nation are glittering deeds. Rebuking, laughing, buying, selling, loving, hating and living together gently and justly with your household – and with yourself – not getting slack nor being false to yourself, is something more remarkable, more rare and more difficult. Whatever people may say, such secluded lives sustain in that way duties which are at least as hard and as tense as those of other lives.” ~Montaigne

• “That's what I would call equanimity, or equilibrium, and it's the kind of state of mind that cannot be perfumed in any way by anything that happens outside you. This kind of confidence that comes from there is like the confidence of the sky. Right now it's dark outside, but you know if you went up in a plane, even in the stormiest of days, the sky's brilliant blue underneath. When you look at the sky, and it's made a rainbow, and it's absolutely gorgeous, there's no question that the sky's up there going, ‘Ha, did you see my rainbow?’ Or when it's a terrible, bleak, you know, gray, gloomy day, that the sky's going to apologize. No, the sky just is, because the sky sees the impermanence of the clouds, and the impermanence of the rainbows, and you have to develop an inner state of mind that's as impervious to all the good shit and bad shit that happens to you as the sky is to the weather.” ~Caroline McHugh

• “And I kind of grew up assuming everyone has some hidden, amazing thing about them. I keep my mouth shut as often as I possibly can, I keep my mind open, and I'm always prepared to be amazed, and I'm never disappointed. You do the same thing. Go out, talk to people, listen to people, and, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed.” ~Celeste Headlee

• Celeste Headlee's 10 rules for a better conversation:

  1. Don’t multitask. Be present with mind.
  2. Enter every conversation assuming that you have something to learn. Don’t just try to get your point across. Everybody is an expert in something.
  3. Use open ended questions. Who, what, when, where, why, how.
  4. Go with the flow. Thoughts will come into your mind and go out of your mind. Let them go. Don’t think for two minutes about a clever question to ask.
  5. If you don’t know, say that you don’t know.
  6. Don’t equate your experience with theirs. It is never the same. It’s not about you. Don’t take that moment. Conversations are not a promotional opportunity.
  7. Try not to repeat yourself.
  8. Stay out of the weeds. People don’t care about the years, the names, the dates, all those details.
  9. Listen. Buddha: if your mouth is open you’re not learning. Calvin Coolidge: no man ever listened his way out of a job. We don’t listen with the intent to understand, we listen with the intent to reply.
  10. Be brief. A good conversation is like a miniskirt, short enough to retain interest, but long enough to cover the subject.

• “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality” ~Seneca

• “In a society that benefits from your self doubt and insecurities, being comfortable in your own skin is the most valuable asset one can have." ~YouTube comment

• “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection" ~Sharon Salzberg

• “It’s normal enough to hold out for all that we want. Why would we celebrate hobbling, when we wish to run? Why accept friendship, when we crave passion? But if we reach the end of the day and no one has died, no further limbs have broken, a few lines have been written and one or two encouraging and pleasant things have been said, then that is already an achievement worthy of a place at the altar of sanity. How natural and tempting to put one’s faith in the bountifulness of the years, but how much wiser it might be to bring all one’s faculties of appreciation and love to bear on that most modest and most easily-dismissed of increments: the day already in hand."

• "When we hit our lowest point we are open to the greatest change" ~Avatar Aang

• “A crisis represents an appetite for growth that hasn't found another way of expressing itself."

• “നേരു പറയാം. ഒരു ദാഹം ബാക്കിയുണ്ട് - പ്രണയം എന്താണെന്ന് അനുഭവിച്ചറിയാൻ കഴിഞ്ഞില്ല. ഏതെങ്കിലും പെണ്ണിനോട് എനിക്കോ ഏതെങ്കിലും പെണ്ണിന് എന്നോടോ ഒരിക്കലും പ്രണയം തോന്നിയിട്ടില്ല. മക്കളും മരുമക്കളും പേരമക്കളുമായി ജീവിച്ചുപോരുന്ന ഈ വയസ്സുകാലത്ത് ഇനി അതൊന്നും നിവൃത്തിയാവാൻ ഒരു പാങ്ങുമില്ല! ആ തോന്നൽ വല്ലപ്പോഴും തേട്ടിവരുമ്പോൾ ഞാൻ ഓസ്കാർ വൈൽഡിന്റെ വാക്കുകൾ ഓർത്തു ചിരിക്കും. ജീവിതത്തിൽ ദുരന്തം രണ്ടുതരത്തിലാണ്-ആദ്യത്തേത് ആഗ്രഹിച്ചതു കിട്ടാതിരിക്കുക. മറ്റേത് ആഗ്രഹിച്ചതു കിട്ടുക." ~എം.എൻ. കാരശ്ശേരി

• “The effort and will can only come from you. No one will ever take your hand and guide you to your better self. No one can do it, your brother, sister, mom, dad, friend can only help you so much. It is all down to your effort and willingness to put yourself into action. 3 billion years of cellular/molecular evolution in the greatest fucking planet; you, a silly and foolish up right walking and talking ape is going to let the social construct of a mammal with the genetic makeup closely related to a fucking acorn rid you of all the greatest pleasures life has to offer??? C'mon man! In the great scheme of things, you getting rejected by the cute girl at your job or being paralyzed at a poetry jam you sign up to, will mean nothing. Live and enjoy the few years we get to experience. It is a worthy endeavor, I promise."

• “A note of warning, almost everything exciting becomes less so eventually, so it's probably not smart to put all your eggs in one basket. When one wears out, another will take its place. If you expect to receive all happiness from one pursuit, you may feel like a failure as a human when it no longer floats your boat. This is definitely not the case though."

• “Lastly, learn to love imperfection. I believe that romanticism, the requirement of perfect, untarnished ideals in an imperfect, tarnished world, is chief amongst all sources of misery. Whether it's yourself, the people you love, the companies you've started, the heroes you've chosen, the spouse you've linked with or the children you've raised, be ok with any and all of them disappointing you at one point or another. The world is a gritty place of incomplete people and non existent wholes. It is the world you live in and the only one you'll get. Learn to love it. Really. Somehow. Please. Embrace its imperfections and distance yourself from people who force their romantic ideals upon you. Misery loves company. Free yourself from the clinging need, accept value in darkness and live with dignity. Find good in the bad, not bad in the good. Somewhere in there is the closest I've come to understanding happiness."

• “You cannot steer a parked car."

• "Genius is knowing when to stop."

• "It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Go towards positivity like a plant turns towards the sun. You can fight darkness by turning away from it. Your feelings inform you what is light and what is dark. One day at a time. You are not alone."

• "I highly suggest travelling on your own if you've never done so. Do whatever you want whenever you want. It's very likely liberating and you end up meeting a lot of people that you might not have met if you were hanging with your friends."

• "The problem is many people view disapproval as something that CAN BE AVOIDED. Guess what! It cannot be avoided. LeBron James, one of the greatest basketball players of our time receives disapproval. Jesus Christ, one of the most influential human beings in history received disapproval. The point is, NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE....you will receive disapproval. SO EMBRACE IT. Talk to that girl, write that blog, move to that city, START THAT BUSINESS! Sure you might fail, and god forbid someone might disapprove of the action you take....SO WHAT. You now know that like the air you breath disapproval is A CONSTANT. It cannot be avoided, and therefore it should be your friend. Ask yourself who are the people you admire in this society? Is it the student who seeks the teacher's approval? Is it the person who accepts a menial day job because it's "safe" and very likely to get society's stamp of approval. You don't admire these people! You admire the risk taker! You admire the person that's willing to say what they want to say REGARDLESS OF DISAPPROVAL. You admire the entrepreneur who starts a business even though failure is imminent. It's the people who are living unapologetically the way they want BECAUSE THEY WANT TO....those are the people we love. Start being the person you admire...love yourself. Just remember, disapproval is a constant you must embrace. Live life on your standards, your reality...your rules. Go for what you want in life, not for other's approval, but for your own intrinsic satisfaction. Who gives a shit if people don't like what you say or do....accept their disapproval, AND DO IT ANYWAYS."

• Things worth remembering:

  • Everybody wants friends and to be loved as much as you do.
  • People are just as self-conscious, anxious, and worried as you are.
  • Be kind, people are fragile.
  • Everyone else has a voice inside them too.
  • Not everyone has to like you.
  • Don't worry, there's someone out there who will though.
  • The more you do and live and risk, the more interesting you become to others.
  • Don't be afraid to make yourself look silly or dumb, people tend to like people who put themselves out there. It's better to take risks.
  • Be flexible, be willing to change your mind and hear others out.
  • Everyone is going through their own problems.
  • Don't be a snot.
  • Everyone is talented/intelligent in their own way - just because you are smart academically and intellectual doesn't mean that you mean more than others.
  • Don't be a pushover, stand up for yourself. People will still like you.
  • Don't dwell.
  • Stop being so anxious.

• "John Greenleaf Whittier wrote in his poem, “Maud Muller”, “Of the saddest words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: It Might Have Been.” Don’t let that be true of you. Not because of your lost love but because of the lost loves and good times you could have had if only you were not wasting your life in regret and self-recrimination. Strive to find joy. Because the truth of the matter is this: if there must be an absence of pain for joy to exist then we are all doomed. We must find a way to experience joy despite our pain. Everybody hurts. Everybody. But many, if not most, find a way to move on despite their pain and find some joy in life and not just find that joy but seek it out and squeeze all they can from it. That’s what you have to do also. You hurt. Ok. I get it. Now what? Get moving. Improve your life and make yourself better for the next great opportunity. Or as Morgan Freeman says, “Get busy living or get busy dying.” When you waste your time in regret you are just committing slow motion suicide. Don’t do it."

• "Progress isn't always a straight line."

• "My friend, you are not bored with life. You are bored with what you are making of your life. Look out there, for just five seconds. See the trees, the houses, the streets, the people. Out there are whole worlds to discover. There are arts to master. There are great works of fiction or memory to be read which will shake your inner core in ways you have never felt before. Life is not boring. What we make of this life often is. If your life consists of school, internet, an occasional meeting with friends, homework, eating, sleeping, masturbation, some sport and games - well, of course life is boring. What does it mean to say something is boring? It is without stimulation, without novelty and change. But this planet alone is so huge that you could spend twenty lifetimes and you would still not have seen everything there is to see in this world. There are so many wise and funny and crazy and beautiful and insightful and normal people to meet, so many countries to visit, foods to try, people to help, landscapes to admire - this world is huge. If you want to be not bored you can make your world not-boring by engaging with more of the world out there. You are not bored with life or the world. You are bored because you have made your life and your world very small. You are living in a small, sheltered bubble, chained by TVs and games and what feels like duties, to stay in this bubble. But you are bored. Why are you bored? Because you know that the life you are living is too small for you. Sleeping through the weekend is too small for you. Going to school, then home is too small for you. Playing computer games and watching movies is too small for you. Maybe even the people around you are too small for you. What you are missing is to go out and try new things. Oh, that's an effort? And you don't know how to get there? Well, fuck that, do it anyway. Get on the greyhound or whatever your countries' equivalent of cheap transport is, and go to a place you've not been before. Your smartphone has connection to amazing travel guides. Your camera in one hand, your smartphone (or better: a printed guide) in the other hand you can go and discover new worlds. Is there a big forest nearby? Get one or two good friends, a tent, sleeping bags and go, do it, just camp out in the woods for a weekend. Find out what it's like to poo in a hole and live from dry and cold food - or how to make a fire (don't burn the forest). Your life is boring you, not because the world is small, but because your world is small. You have a choice: Keep doing what is easy, the things you know, the things you have done before, the things that you are sure will be fun and safe. Do something different every day. Walk through the city at night. Lay in an open field and try to count the stars. Dare to try new things even if you look stupid. Be the guy that follows his ideas and that drags others along, rather than the one that waits for others to suggest things. One of those versions you've tried. One of those choices bores you. The other one scares you. It is your choice: Remain bored or dare to do things you haven't done before. Your life will not be interesting unless you make it interesting."

• "Being happy. It’s not one big thing for me but several: Know yourself. Come to terms with who you are as a person, the role you play in others’ lives, and what your personal goals and priorities are. Admit your flaws to yourself and then focus on your strengths, building them up, and playing to them. Stop worrying about things that have happened or that might happen. Focus on today and tomorrow each day. Control what you can. Invest in yourself and in things that cannot be taken away from you. These include health, knowledge, experiences, education/training, as well as tangible items. Getting out of debt or minimizing debt really does make you feel more free. Treat other people the way you want to be treated. Be polite and respectful to others. Try to make other people smile and laugh and you will be amazed how much more you will find yourself smiling and laughing. Be the adult. Don’t take shit from people. When people are giving you shit, call them out on it in the way a coach or teacher would. “Deborah, that’s not a respectful or professional tone and it doesn’t do any of us any good for you to speak that way. We are never going to finish this project if we can’t communicate and cooperate. We need to be a team and we can’t afford to cut each other down.” Be more decisive. The only way you learn to be more decisive is to start making decisions and communicating them. People treat you differently when you act decisively. Find things that amuse you and do them often. I like to drop quotes from classic comedies in otherwise serious situations and see who else in the room smiles. This kind of ties in to #4 and I do it multiple times per day. I also enjoy people watching and getting people to try new foods. Put yourself first. I don’t mean be selfish or self-centered. I mean don’t do things that are bad for you to please other people. Don’t sacrifice your own sanity or safety or time or money for other people unless they really, really, really deserve it. It’s ok to look out for yourself and you shouldn’t apologize for it. Plus, you’re not able to help others until you have some stability yourself. Stop worrying. Everyone wants you scared, confused, or in some way dependent so they can control you. Don’t fall for it. Stop consuming so much media and get outside more. Stop browsing Reddit and go to a play or a sporting event. Just stop letting outside forces make you think about and worry about shit you can’t control."

• "Carl Sagan. I realized that if I say I'm bored, it's like slapping Mother Earth in the face and telling her what she's offered me isn't good enough. That I need more, better. The universe is infinite outward and your mind is infinite inward. There is never a moment to be bored."

• "Here's what I do. I stop drinking alcohol at 6pm on Sundays. I try to get, no less, than eight hours of sleep each night. I put everything I need in the morning out the night before (toothpaste, floss etc). I have my clothes laying out in the bathroom. My shoes are in the bathroom. While getting ready I listen to music in the morning. Not news. I take my dogs out for a leisurly walk. I listen to music on my drive to work. Not the news. I work at a job I love (31 years). I go home to a wife I love and walk the dogs I love. I don't drink Monday-Thursday. This works for me. By the way, I make less money than the national average. I'm still happy every day. You can be too. You just have to decide that that is how your going to see your life. There will always be someone better off and worse off than you are. Enjoy the days one at a time."

• "So to those who are constantly depressed or maybe just stuck in a rut, give yourself a break. You are worth your life, and life is precious. Protect yours, engage in yours, do the things that make you happy and enrich those around you. Life is fleeting, life is ugly, life is hard, but God Damnit can life be beautiful. If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, then try to change the scenery, you are worth being happy."

• "One small change that helped my perspective was to replace "I'm sorry" with "Thank you". For example, instead of saying "Sorry I'm late" , say " thank you for waiting for me" and that sort of thing. It made me realize how many little things I have to be thankful for each day :)"

• "Constantly plan for events or occurrences that are outside of your day to day. It can be big like travelling to another country or as small as picking up a new video game. I find the constant anticipation to eventually meeting your goal is what gives me that high of enjoying life."

• "Enjoying little things no matter how insignificant they seem. Like really savoring that first sip of hot cocoa, listening to the wind blow through the trees and how it makes the branches click together, enjoying the feel of my pets fur as I brush them, the hypnotic sound of pencil writing on paper. Life can be very mundane, but if you slow down sometimes you can find joy in the smallest of things. This! I have a garden in my backyard. God are gardens great for the small moments. Sometimes we get butterflies, sometimes we get hummingbirds! Week to week or even day to day, you see changes. You can see the flowers forming on your plants. You can see your veggies getting big, flowering, fruiting, and ripening. There's so much magic going on with just air, sunlight, and a little water."

• Nine small things for a happier life:

  1. Enjoy time spent alone. Being alone is scary for a lot of people. A lot especially don't know how to be alone with their thoughts. You don't need to isolate yourself or avoid people, but just be able to handle not having somebody to immediately talk to at all hours of the day. You'll end up finding you can actually enjoy yourself alone in ways you can't with the noise of company.
  2. Maintain meaningful relationships. You shouldn't rely on others specifically to make you happy, but just enjoy the people you talk to. Make friends, pay attention to them, listen to them and gain enjoyment from hearing about their lives. Equally, share your own lives with people whom are happy to listen to you. Such moments day-to-day won't necessarily give your life meaning, but it'll keep up your mood.
  3. Be a generally friendly person. If the same guy brings you your pizza each time, learn his name. Remembering him as 'Pete' rather than 'The pizza guy' can make even a small interaction be another small up in your day. You don't necessarily have to 'trust' everyone you meet, but by assuming the best in people when you can, and treating them that way, a lot of people will return that sentiment.
  4. Take care of your body. Basic exercise, a proper diet, and a consistent sleep schedule, do a lot. A lot of it is just hormonal as well, when your body chemistry is in balance it positively affects other parts of your life as well. A bonus is that if you look healthy and feel well-rested, it'll positively impact your self-confidence and self-image.
  5. Have some hobbies and enjoy them to their fullest. Enjoy learning more about them, and getting better at them. Don't compare yourself to others, only yourself. Being better each day than you were before is really rewarding; reminding yourself you're not as good as others is a pointless endeavor that only damages motivation.
  6. Pour effort into anything worth doing. In your actual job, or your personal things, if you're actually taking the time to do something, do it properly. Not for anybody else's sake, but just to know you've done your best. Knowing you're half-assing your work and wasting your potential each day will just wear you down.
  7. Explore yourself. Find a new hobby, meet a new person, try a new food, play a game, watch a movie, read a book, go to a new place. No matter what you do, being willing to explore new things means you always have an opportunity to find something you didn't know you loved. It also helps you fill your life with small fun things.
  8. Make the spaces you spend time in pleasant. If you spend a lot of time in a specific area, try to make it aesthetically pleasing if possible. Perhaps your home, or your workspace, or anything. If you have to spend 8 hours in the same gray space everyday, eventually it'll affect your mood. But seeing some small colourful things can just be a little thing to keep your day going.
  9. Change your attitude. Behind every gray cloud is a silver lining. Behind every mistake is a chance to grow. Behind every missed chance, is an opportunity for something new. Being willing to see things in a positive light, and to just enjoy the little things in your day, will really make a difference to your day-to-day. Even if you know the day is bad, see it as a positive day overall in some small way, and don't let it get to you. It's not a crime to take care of yourself or want to be happy. It doesn't matter if it's selfish or if you deserve it or not. If you want to live a life you can be happy to live, then do so. Make small but consistent changes each day, and watch them build up to the life you really want.

• " ..ഞാനൊരു കാര്യം പറയട്ടെ നിന്നോട് ... നീ ഞങ്ങളെപ്പോലെയാവരുത് നീ തോൽക്കരുത് കുട്ടാ എന്നെപ്പോലെ തലയും താടിയും നരച്ച് വീട്ടിലിരിക്കേണ്ടവനല്ല നീയ് ...തോൽക്കാനെളുപ്പാ An arrangement of Convenience അവരവരുടെ കാര്യങ്ങൾ നടന്നുപോകാനുള്ളോരേർപ്പാടു.അത്രേള്ളൂ വിപ്ലവവും പ്രണയവും ബന്ധങ്ങളുമൊക്കെ... എടാ ...ഈ ഓർമ്മെന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാ അത് ഭയങ്കര അപകടം പിടിച്ച സാധനാ Memories are dangerous beings. പെട്ട് പോകല്ലേ കുട്ടാ, നീയൊരെഴുത്തുകാരനാകണെന്നാ അച്ഛനെപ്പോഴും ആഗ്രഹിച്ചത്. നീ ജീവിക്കാൻ തുടങ്ങീട്ടേള്ളൂ.ഒക്കെ നന്നായി വരും.അങ്ങനെ വരാവൂ..." ~ഋതു

• "Whenever you think you just can't bear it, you're wrong. You've already survived it. You are still surviving it. You're just afraid of the pain continuing. But you've already demonstrated you can survive it. You have no need to be afraid. You've already conquered what you fear."

• "You are a child of the universe. Much like the trees and the stars, you have the right to be here." ~Max Ehrmann

• “In the face of adversity, we have a choice. We can be bitter, or we can be better. Those words are my North Star.”

• “Seek greater understanding, but do not expect greater detail. There are many who, by virtue of their passivity, dependency, fear and laziness, seek to be shown every inch of the way and have it demonstrated to them that each step will be safe and worth their while. This cannot be done. For the journey of spiritual growth requires courage and initiative and independence of thought and action. While the words of the prophets and the assistance of grace are available, the journey must still be traveled alone. No teacher can carry you there. There are no preset formulas. Rituals are only learning aids, they are not the learning. Eating organic food, saying five Hail Mary's before breakfast, praying facing east or west, or going to church on Sunday will not take you to your destination. No words can be said, no teaching can be taught that will relieve spiritual travelers from the necessity of picking their own ways, working out with effort and anxiety their own paths through the unique circumstances of their own lives toward the identification of their individual selves with God." ~M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

• “The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” ~Alan Watts

• “Often when I feel lost in life, I write letters to myself to see things from a different perspective. To appreciate myself more. It doesn’t solve my problems but it makes me feel better. This is my first time putting it in a video, cos I suspect a lot of people are not appreciating themselves enough, people are dwelling on failures. It’s a way to love yourself again. I wrote letters to myself. Your turn.” ~Sankho Kun

• “The life you're used to and the body you control are not the full scope of the organism of which you are a part. You are 100 trillion cells in each of 6 billion human beings. your cousins, a thousand times as numerous, are cells comprising the tissues and organs that make ants work. The other 99.9% of you is bacteria, and you've been here for 4 billion years. You are older than the mountains, older than the asteroid belt. And during this 4 billion years, you have never died. Not all of you. Not once. Some parts of you became damaged and were lost, but you carried on. If your parents hadn't made it, you wouldn't be here right now. During this 4 billion years we transformed a hostile world into a comfortable one. Or it transformed us. We made the atmosphere breathable and we adapted to breathe it. We made fur, and later, we made other parts of us make fur for the human parts. And the human part of you made tools. Rocket tools that will be of use to all of us very soon. With the help of this human organ, your cellular descendants will leap off this mote of dust into the vast sea of resources beyond. A sea that can support us hundreds of trillions of times more richly than our current home. A sea for our home, to make liveable or to force us to adapt again, as Earth once did. Rejoice, human, and keep moving forward! You're on to something very big for all of us, though you may not yet know it. We will all reap the rewards of your efforts, soon.”

• “The moves that these grand people made with kids are ones we should all learn how to make with anyone, of whatever age, we want to bond with. But it’s particularly useful that these were grand people who made neighing sounds, for what so often holds us back around others, and makes us cold when we deep down long to be close, is a fear of a loss of dignity. Friendship begins, and loneliness can end, when we cease trying to impress, have the courage to step outside our safety zones and can dare – for a time – to look a little ridiculous.”

• “Life is short, break the rules. Forgive quickly, kiss slowly. LOVE TRULY. Laugh uncontrollably and never regret ANYTHING that makes you smile." ~Mark Twain

• “If you're harmless, you're not virtuous you're just harmless. If you on the other hand have the capacity to be a monster, but you choose not to be - then you're virtuous."

• “Books don’t change lives; sentences do."

• “Financial freedom isn’t X amount. Luxuries soon become necessities, X constantly grows. In a world where everyone is triggering you to borrow & buy what you don’t need, being content & debt-free is true financial freedom. Common sense stuff, rarely said." ~Nithin Kamath

• “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ~C. S. Lewis

• "The art of creativity is taking pre-existing characters and stories and changing them completely to fit my own personal political narrative."

• “You’ll watch an entire Netflix series even when the first episodes are slow just because someone told you that ‘it gets better’, but what if you looked at your goals like that and watched your life get better instead?”

• "His head was over there... his body over there, and... I mean, what was the point? I was too late. I was just standing there. Some idiot with an axe."
  "Now, you're no idiot. You're here aren't you? Seeking counsel from the wisest person in Asgard."
  "Yeah, I guess."
  "Idiot? No. A failure? Absolutely."
  "That's a little bit harsh."
  "Do you know what that makes you? Just like everyone else."
  "I'm not supposed to be like everyone else, am I?"
  "Everyone fails at who they are supposed to be, Thor. The measure of a person, of a hero... is how well they succeed at being who they are."
  "I really missed you, Mum." ~Thor and Frigga

• “സണ്ണി, അമ്മച്ചിയെ കൂട്ടി വരാമെന്നു പറഞ്ഞു പോയിട്ടിപ്പോ നാളെത്രയായി? ഇവിടെ അല്ലിയുടെ വിവാഹമാണ്, ഗംഗയും നകുലേട്ടനും നാളെയെത്തും, ശാരദപ്പച്ചിയും ഉണ്ടാകുമത്രേ ഇക്കുറി.അല്ലിയാകെ സന്തോഷത്തിലാണ്, മഹാദേവൻ നാട്ടിൽ പോയിരിക്കുന്നു,അമ്മയെയും മറ്റും കൂട്ടി ഇന്നെത്തും, കാവൂട്ടും കൈയിൽ പിടിച്ചു സ്വപ്നം കണ്ടു നടപ്പാണ് അല്ലി, ഇടക്ക് തനിയെ പാടുന്നതും കേൾക്കാം.മാടമ്പള്ളി ഒന്ന് മിനുക്കാൻ ഉണ്ണിത്താൻ അമ്മാവൻ ഇപ്രാവശ്യം രാജപ്പനെ അല്ല ഏല്പിച്ചത്. അപ്പച്ചി അല്ലിയെയാണ് മിനുക്കുന്നത്, ഏതു നേരവും അവളുടെ പുറകെയാണ് ഇവിടെത്തെ പെൺപട. കാട്ടുപറമ്പൻ നാടാകെ സണ്ണിക്കെന്തോ കുഴപ്പമുണ്ടെന്ന സംശയവുമായി നടപ്പാണ്, ദാസപ്പൻ ജോലിക്കായി ദൂരെയെവിടെയോ പോയി. ചന്തുവിനു സണ്ണിയെ പറ്റി പറയാനേ നേരമുള്ളൂ, അവനിപ്പോൾ അവന്റെ ചേച്ചിയെക്കാൾ ഇഷ്ടം നിങ്ങളോടാണ്ണെന്നു തോന്നുന്നു.ആ കിണ്ടിയവൻ പൊന്നുപോലെ സൂക്ഷിച്ചു വച്ചേക്കുവാണ്.ഇതിപ്പോൾ നാട്ടുവിശേഷം മുഴുവൻ ഇതിലുണ്ടല്ലെ, എനിക്കിതേ അറിയൂ സണ്ണി, എനിക്കൊരിക്കിലും എന്നെ കുറിച്ചെഴുതാൻ കഴിയാറില്ല. ഞാനിടക്ക് ഓർക്കും ഗംഗക്ക് വയ്യാതെയായത് ഒരുതരത്തിൽ എനിക്കെത്ര നന്നായിയെന്ന്. പണ്ടൊക്കെ ശാരദപ്പച്ചിയോട് എനിക്ക് ദേഷ്യമായിരുന്നു, ഇപ്പോൾ ഓർക്കുമ്പോൾ ചിരി വരും.ഗംഗ ഇടക്ക് വിളിച്ചപ്പോൾ ചോദിച്ചു, നിനക്കെന്നോട് എപ്പോഴെങ്കിലും ദേഷ്യം തോന്നിയോയെന്ന്, നന്ദിയാണ് അവളോട്, ഒരിക്കലും കിട്ടില്ലെന്നു തോന്നിയ സ്നേഹം കിട്ടാനൊരു നിമിത്തമായതിന്. ഇനിയും തെക്കിനി തുറന്നാലേ വരുള്ളൂ എന്നുണ്ടോ? അച്ഛൻ എപ്പോഴും ചോദിക്കുന്ന സണ്ണിയെ പറ്റി, അമ്മക്ക് പണ്ടേ ചോദ്യങ്ങളില്ലല്ലോ. ഞാൻ ഇവിടെ ഗംഗ വച്ചിട്ട് പോയ പുസ്തകങ്ങളുടെ കൂടെയാണ്,മിക്കപ്പോഴും അന്നേനെ പൂട്ടിയിട്ട മുറിക്കുള്ളിൽ പോയിരിക്കും,അവിടെയിരിക്കുമ്പോൾ സണ്ണി പാടുന്നത് ഞാൻ കേൾക്കാറുണ്ട്.ഇപ്പോഴും ചിലരൊക്കെ എനിക്കെന്തോ കുഴപ്പമില്ലെയെന്ന രീതിയിൽ നോക്കാറുണ്ട്, ഇടക്ക് ഞാനാ ശാന്തേച്ചിയെ ഒന്ന് പേടിപ്പിച്ചു, പിന്നെ പാവം തോന്നി. പിന്നെ നാട്ടിലെ ഒന്ന് രണ്ട് വായിനോക്കികളെയും.ശ്രീദേവിക്ക് ഒരറ്റ ഭ്രാന്തെ ഉള്ളുവെന്നവർക്കറിയില്ലലോ. ദേവീന്നു വിളിച്ചു കൊണ്ടെത്തുന്ന സണ്ണിക്കായി, ആരും വരാത്ത വഴിവക്കിൽ ഞാൻ കാത്തിരിക്കുന്നു. എന്ന് ശ്രീദേവി.” ~Arundhathy Meenakshi Bhavasara

• "I'm 26 years old, and I've spent my whole life waiting for something else to start. Now I realize that this is all there is, and I'm going to try to live my life like that. I have this theory that your body goes through puberty in its teens, and the mind goes through puberty in your twenties"

• “We’ve been taught from such a young age that happiness is meant to be this big, all consuming thing. That it is this moment that cracks us open, and sweeps all of the weight inside of us away. That it is something we’re always in pursuit of until we find it. And so we are always waiting for happiness — this simplifying in life, this ‘aha’ moment where the wounds are healed and the growth is organized neatly within our ribcage and our hearts aren’t afraid and the warmth never leaves. But I don’t think happiness is big, or infinite at all. I think real happiness exists in the acceptance of the fact that we will always be balancing what is light and dark within ourselves. It exists in the quiet, in the small things. In a morning cup of coffee, in the sound of your mothers voice. I think real happiness is believing that you are meant to be here, that you are meant to take up space. I think real happiness is finding the human beings who take care of you — not in a materialistic way, but rather, finding those who take care of your soul, those who truly see you. I think real happiness is all around you, at all times, pinned and blooming in the things you stopped paying attention to because you were always searching for more. Flowers on your walk to work. The intensity in the air when you meet someone and you know they’re going to change your life. The way your stomach flips when you hear your favourite song, or when you hold the person who fills you with the sunniest kind of hope."

• "I don't know if I will have the time to write any more letters because I might be too busy trying to participate. So if this does end up being the last letter, I just want you to know that I was in a bad place before I started high school, and you helped me. Even if you didn't know what I was talking about or know someone who's gone through it, you made me not feel alone. Because I know there are people who say all these things don't happen. And there are people who forget what it's like to be 16 when they turn 17. I know these will all be stories someday. And our pictures will become old photographs. We'll all become somebody's mom or dad. But right now these moments are not stories. This is happening. I am here and I am looking at her. And she is so beautiful. I can see it. This one moment when you know you're not a sad story. You are alive, and you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you're listening to that song and that drive with the people you love most in this world. And in this moment I swear, we are infinite." ~The Perks of Being a Wallflower

• "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope"

• "I’m an introvert. At least I think I am. Sometimes I surprise myself with some sort of extroverted gesture that I then often regret and will overthink it retrospectively and feel anxious that I shouldn’t have expressed my extroverted side and instantly regret it. I’m obsessive. If I discover a book or movie or song or artist that I instantly fall in love with I will read, or watch or listen or stare obsessively at for days or weeks until my every thought is consumed by this thing. I hide. I hide from people, situations, confrontation and often myself. I escape. Always into a book, and feel free from every anxiety, every awkward one sided conversation, every regret, every fear of failure. And finally, I am a dreamer. I dream of being an author, or poet or script writer that writes something that maybe, just maybe, some other introvert somewhere can get obsessive about, or escape into when they want to hide from the world….. just like me." ~@paperplanesundays

• "ചിലപ്പോൾ നിങ്ങൾക്ക് തോന്നാം ഇതല്ലാതെ ഒന്നും പറയാൻ ഉണ്ടാവാറില്ലേന്നു, എന്തെന്നാൽ സ്നേഹിക്കപ്പെട്ടൂ എന്ന് അറിയുന്നതിനേക്കാൾ മനുഷ്യനെ സ്വാതന്ത്രനാക്കുന്ന ഒന്നും ഇല്ല എല്ലാവരും ഒരിക്കലെങ്കിലും ഒരു കാമുക കണ്ണാലെ അവനവനെ കണ്ടു നോക്കണം നമ്മളുടെ കൊച്ചു കൊച്ചു കുറവുകളിൽ ഓഹ് നമ്മൾ അത്ര നല്ലതല്ല എന്നൊക്കെ തോന്നുമ്പോൾ ശരിക്കും സ്നേഹമുള്ള സന്തോഷമുള്ള കാരുണ്യമുള്ള നമ്മളെ തന്നെ ഒന്ന് കാണാൻ ഇടക്കൊക്കെ ആരേലും കെട്ടിപിടിക്കണം, ഒന്നും മനസിലാവാതെ ഇരിക്കുന്ന ദിവസങ്ങളില്ലേ അപ്പൊ അതിലും പ്രധാനം എന്താണെന്ന് അറിയോ, ഓടിച്ചെന്നു കെട്ടിപ്പിടിക്കാൻ ആരൊക്കെയോ ഉണ്ടെന്ന പ്രതീക്ഷ" ~Mehar MP

• Writing is a strange craft. Because so many of us are literate, we feel writing stories should come really naturally, and if you struggle, it's just because you're a naturally bad writer.

  It's not the case. Writing stories takes as much study and practice as painting or playing an instrument. How many books have you read about writing scripts or prose fiction? How many stories - good, bad, ugly - have you finished, shared and received feedback and/or instruction on? Are you cut out for this? It's really a question of how much you want it, and whether your work ethic matches that.

• "Oh no, I want to write but I believe I suck at it."

  1. If you believe you suck so much, why don’t you get better by writing and learning along the way?
  2. How do you learn? For starters check your own writing. Is there something off you think it can improve? It can’t all be so bad. Some bits have to be keepers. As for the rest that cause you nausea, how do they differ from your favorite authors? What do other people think about them?
  3. What? You think everything you write is bad? Not even a single tiny bit is passable? Then make it good by going back to tip #1. Or at least have a positive mindset. Who said your writing has to be good in order for people to like it? Lots of bad books are very popular. Corny, derivative, schlocky nonsense has its audience and it’s big.
  4. I said audience, didn’t I? If you think you suck so much, why don’t you check what sells out there? Maybe your mom and your cousin George think they are the spawns of the devil, but what about the others out there? Maybe you are not showing your work to the proper people. Take young adult or light novels for example. Most of them are meh or worse, yet they are doing well. Because they are written for a certain audience that doesn’t include your mom or your cousin George. So keep writing. There is bound to be an audience even for the trash fire you are making.
  5. I keep saying you are bad at writing, don’t I? Why should you be bad? Do you by any chance want to be good instead of bad? Then go back to tip #1. Or at least stop worrying so much. A badly written story can be improved. A story that was not written can only be written or go to waste. It’s about persistence, you know? If you don’t persist, it won’t even be given the chance to be good.
  6. You still think you suck despite of all I said so far? Go berserk and write whatever dribble comes to mind without stopping for a moment to think what the hell you are doing. Just do it like in the Nike commercial. Once you are done, look at what you created. It will probably look like the worst thing in human history. But only because it will be unpolished ideas that need to be fleshed out and calibrated. In any case you don’t throw them away. You go back to tip #1.
  7. What? You are still here and you still think you suck? What’s wrong with you? You end up being your own worst enemy, you know? You think those abstract paintings that are given a value of hundreds of millions of dollars are actually worth that much? It’s just a bunch of lines that some critics said they cost so much because they felt like it (and wanted to make money). Are you really telling me you can’t draw a couple of lines on a canvas and say it’s worth a million bucks? Others did it. I can do it too. Why can’t you?
  8. What’s this crazy talk about placing value on your writing? Who said it needs to have a price tag? It’s your writing, it should be priceless to you. If you don’t value your own creation, why do you expect others to do it for you? Isn’t it an extension of yourself? Your brainchild? Something you made with hard work and is therefore important to you because you made it? Why does it need to be more than that? And if you think it can get even better so others can like it too, there is always tip #1.
  9. What do you mean you don’t know what to write despite wanting to? Just you nagging all this time is a story of its own. Look at me, writing all this shit for you. That is also a story of its own. What made me do it? Money and fame? I won’t get a dime and it will be forgotten in a day. I made it because I wanted to make it and I wasn’t nagging on the internet about not making it. I made it because I wanted it, get it? And here it is. It happened. Because I wanted it. Is it good? Who gives a shit? I had fun writing it.
  10. What? Why are you still reading this? Are you a glutton for punishment? Do you like people saying you are procrastinating or have a loser mentality all this time? Charlie! Charlie, come see this guy on the internet procrastinating and having a loser mentality. There, I just did, are you happy now? What are you going to do about it, wallow in it or go back to the damn first tip? Geez!

• "Then, for the first time in my life, I was really aware of another person’s body, of another person’s smell. We had our arms around each other. It was like a holding in my hand some rare, exhausted, nearly doomed bird which I had miraculously happened to find." ~Giovanni's Room