It is said that the right books come into our lives at the right time. But what about the right quotes from the right books?
Below are the quotes from the top-mentioned books (e.g. Man’s Search for Meaning, Tao Te Ching). Some of them may resonate with you. They can’t help you much on your tough and rewarding startup journey. Only your determination and actions can do that.
However, I hope those words will somehow give you a dose of inspiration when you need it most.
Man Search For Meaning, Victor Frankl
1. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
2. Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.
3. Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.
4. Humor was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation.
5. I do not forget any good deed done to me & I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.
6. No one has the right to do wrong, even if wrong has been done to them.
7. It is we ourselves who must answer the questions that life asks of us, and to those questions, we can respond only by being responsible for our existence.
8. When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure
9. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
1. It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
2. People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.
3. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
4. Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.
5. You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an unanticipated blow.
6. We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path.
7. When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.
8. No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.
9. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
1. It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
2. If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.
3. Don’t go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
4. When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.
5. The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.
6. I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.
7. In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.
8. Does the emerald lose its beauty for lack of admiration?
9. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki
1. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others. Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.
2. In zazen, leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.
3. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.
4. The most important thing in life is to find out what is the most important thing.
5. Do not be concerned with the fruits of your actions, just give and do your best.
6. Everything changes, nothing remains the same. Mountains are not mountains, rivers are not rivers.
7. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
8. The more you discriminate between yourself and others, the more trouble you will have in your life.
9. The only way to enjoy life is to be completely involved in each moment.
Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
1. When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.
2. I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.
3. All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power. If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.
4. The further one goes, the less one knows.
5. When I let go of what I am I become what I might be.
6. If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.
7. Great acts are made up of small deeds.
8. What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher? What is a bad man but a good man’s job? If you don’t understand this, you will get lost, however intelligent you are. It is the great secret.
9. A leader is best when people barely know he exists. Of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, “We did this ourselves.”
