Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less Quotes
"THE WISDOM OF LIFE CONSISTS IN THE ELIMINATION OF NON-ESSENTIALS." - Lin Yutang
"Stay, but do what you would as a consultant and nothing else. And don’t tell anyone."
"Is this the very most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?"
"Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter."
"The way of the Essentialist isn’t about setting New Year’s resolutions to say 'no' more, it’s about pausing constantly to ask, 'Am I investing in the right activities?'"
"Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done."
"If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will."
"People are effective because they say ‘no,’ because they say, ‘this isn’t for me.’" - Peter Drucker
"Our investment philosophy borders on lethargy." - Warren Buffett
"Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" - T. S. Eliot
"You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything." - John Maxwell
"A LITTLE NONSENSE NOW AND THEN, IS CHERISHED BY THE WISEST MEN." - Roald Dahl
"The word school is derived from the Greek word schole, meaning 'leisure.'"
"Nothing fires up the brain like play." - Stuart Brown
"Play prepares these bears for a changing planet." - Bob Fagan
"During play, animals are especially prone to behave in flexible and creative ways." - Jaak Panksepp
"The brain's executive functions include planning, prioritizing, scheduling, anticipating, delegating, deciding, analyzing."
"EACH NIGHT, WHEN I GO TO SLEEP, I DIE. AND THE NEXT MORNING, WHEN I WAKE UP, I AM REBORN." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Sleep is what allows us to operate at our highest level of contribution."
"One hour more of sleep equals several more hours of much higher productivity."
"If the answer isn't a definite yes then it should be a no."
"TO FOLLOW, WITHOUT HALT, ONE AIM: THERE IS THE SECRET TO SUCCESS." - Anna Pavlova
"COURAGE IS GRACE UNDER PRESSURE." - Ernest Hemingway
"HALF OF THE TROUBLES OF THIS LIFE CAN BE TRACED TO SAYING YES TOO QUICKLY AND NOT SAYING NO SOON ENOUGH." - Josh Billings
"By quietly eliminating or at least scaling back an activity for a few days or weeks you might be able to assess whether it is really making a difference or whether no one really cares."
"Learning how to uncommit—in ways that will garner you respect for your courage, focus, and discipline—is crucial to becoming an Essentialist."
"A good film editor makes it hard not to see what's important because she eliminates everything but the elements that absolutely need to be there."
"Disciplined editing can help add to your level of contribution. It increases your ability to focus on and give energy to the things that really matter."
"Editing aids the effortless execution of the Essentialist by removing anything distracting or unnecessary or awkward."
"In life, we don’t have the luxury of revisiting a conversation we have just had, or a meeting we just led, or a presentation we just made and reworking it, red pen in hand."
"As an editor I am constantly taking these inputs and deciding the one, or intersection of a few, that make sense for what we are doing."
"A good editor is someone who uses deliberate subtraction to actually add life to the ideas, setting, plot, and characters."
"The Latin root of the word decision—cis or cid—literally means 'to cut' or 'to kill.'"
"Condensing means saying it as clearly and concisely as possible."
"To attain knowledge add things every day. To attain wisdom subtract things every day."
"Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow."
"Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition."
"Life is available only in the present moment. If you abandon the present moment you cannot live the moments of your daily life deeply."
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
"You must, as Stephen King has said, 'kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.'"