Ryan Holiday Quotes

• The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.

  Ryan Holiday

  Opportunity, Path, Obstacles

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.12, Penguin

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• No one will argue that writing is an easy profession. Getting someone to pay you for your words isn’t easy. But there are strategies you can use to simplify the process and transform what you can produce.

  Ryan Holiday

  Writing, Use, Pay

  48 Copy quote

• Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.

  Ryan Holiday

  Perspective, Perception, Body

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage”, p.48, Profile Books

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• Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.

  Ryan Holiday

  Focus, Monsters, May

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.35, Penguin

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• It’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit. To know you want to quit but to plant your feet and keep inching closer until you take the impenetrable fortress you’ve decided to lay siege to in your own life—that’s persistence.

  Ryan Holiday

  Persistence, Feet, Want

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.80, Penguin

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• You know what’s better than building things up in your imagination? Building things up in real life.

  Ryan Holiday

  Real, Imagination, Building Things

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage”, p.138, Profile Books

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• Failure shows us the way - by showing us what isn't the way.

  Ryan Holiday

  Way, Shows

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage”, p.89, Profile Books

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• To do great things, we need to be able to endure tragedy and setbacks. We've got to love what we do and all that it entails, good and bad. We have to learn to find joy in every single thing that happens.

  Ryan Holiday

  Joy, Tragedy, Needs

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• The Germans have a word for it: Sitzfleisch. Staying power. Winning by sticking your ass to the seat and not leaving until after it's over.

  Ryan Holiday

  Winning, Leaving, Ass

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.95, Penguin

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• When intelligent people read, they ask themselves a simple question: What do I plan to do with this information?

  Ryan Holiday

  Intelligent, Simple, People

  Ryan Holiday (2018). “Trust Me I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator”, p.190, Profile Books

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• Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great individuals, like great companies, find a way to transform weakness into strength.

  Ryan Holiday

  Weakness, Way, Individual

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.10, Penguin

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• Dollar for dollar there is no better investment in the world than a book

  Ryan Holiday

  Book, World, Dollars

  FaceBook post by Ryan Holiday from Dec 22, 2015

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• There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.

  Ryan Holiday

  Mean, Perception, Events

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage”, p.31, Profile Books

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• True will is quiet humility, resilience, and flexibility; the other kind of will is weakness disguised by bluster and ambition.

  Ryan Holiday

  Ambition, Humility, Resilience

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage”, p.123, Profile Books

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• Problems are rarely as bad as we think-or rather, they are precisely as bad as we think.

  Ryan Holiday

  Thinking, Problem

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage”, p.68, Profile Books

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• We decide what we will make of each and every situation. We decide whether we’ll break or whether we’ll resist.

  Ryan Holiday

  Break, Situation

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.19, Penguin

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• I run 5 miles every night. It’s where I go to digest my day, hash out the multitude of information that’s been poured into me in the last wild six months or so, and to try and condense it down to some sort of cohesive strategy to live my life by.

  Ryan Holiday

  Running, Night, Trying

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• Conning the conmen is one of life’s most satisfying pleasures.

  Ryan Holiday

  Pleasure, Conning, Satisfying

  Ryan Holiday (2012). “Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator”, p.39, Penguin

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• Discipline in perception lets you clearly see the advantage and the proper course of action in every situation—without the pestilence of panic or fear.

  Ryan Holiday

  Discipline, Perception, Pestilence

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.17, Penguin

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• Am I saying this because I want to prove how smart I am or am I saying this because it needs to be said?

  Ryan Holiday

  Smart, Dope, Needs

  Twitter post from Mar 13, 2015

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• An entrepreneur is someone with faith in their ability to make something where there was nothing before.

  Ryan Holiday

  Entrepreneur, Ability

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.37, Penguin

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• Ordinary people shy away form negative situations, just as they do with failure. They do their best to avoid trouble. What great people do is the opposite. They are their best in these situations. They turn personal tragedy or misfortune - really anything, everything - to their advantage.

  Ryan Holiday

  Opposites, People, Tragedy

  Ryan Holiday (2014). “The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph”, p.74, Penguin

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• What is known can't jerk us around unwittingly. Before anything can be resolved, the implicit must be made into the explicit.

  Ryan Holiday

  Jerk, Made, Explicit

  Ryan Holiday (2012). “Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator”, p.201, Penguin

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• The most powerful predictor of what spreads online is anger.

  Ryan Holiday

  Powerful, Online, Most Powerful

  Ryan Holiday (2012). “Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator”, p.59, Penguin

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• You cannot have your news instantly and have it done well. You cannot have your news reduced to 140 characters or less without losing large parts of it. You cannot manipulate the news but not expect it to be manipulated against you. You cannot have your news for free; you can only obscure the costs. If as a culture we can learn this lesson, and if we can learn to love the hard work, we will save ourselves much trouble and collateral damage. We must remember: There is no easy way.

  Ryan Holiday

  Hard Work, Character, Culture

  Ryan Holiday (2012). “Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator”, p.201, Penguin

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