Introduction 

• We all seem to be very interested & engaged with quotes and quoting people, and I may have an even greater interest than most.
• What percentage of people do you think have heard or recognise this quote: ‘I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.’ Do you think that percentage is higher than people who know who Muhammad Ali is? While I don’t know for sure, I think the answer is probably yes.
• We seem to love these nuggets of understanding from both history and present day.
• The aim of this blog is to focus in on the reasons why we take quotes to heart and why they can play a central role for people. I’ll suggest there are 3 main reasons for this: (1) Source of motivation (2) Impartment of knowledge or understanding (3) A way to define ourselves. I’ll then give you a snap shot of my favourite quotes, hope you enjoy!

Motivation 

• Motivation is not bi-polar, it isn’t black & white, certain people aren’t born with ‘motivation’ and other people not. Motivation is a constant requirement, it ebbs and flows for everyone. There is no emphatic moment when someone watches, for example ‘Art of Flight’ and then acquires sustained motivation to snowboard 8am to 6pm 7 days a week, spend hours in the gym getting into shape and perfecting their tricks. For someone to do that they need constant shots of new motivation on an almost daily basis, this is one role for quotes.
• Quotes act as a reminder, a shot of additional motivation when required. Keeping with the ‘Art of Flight’ example when Scotty Lago breaks his jaw Travis Rice says “Now you’re gonna take beatings, it’s written in our DNA, you know. you’re gonna go down…. you get up, it’s that simple”.
• Reciting that quote when you’re having a rubbish day or have an injury can help reinvigorate you and be the final push to get you into that gym session or back on the road to recovery.
• You don’t need to watch the whole film again or find something new to spark that passion, remembering the quote will suffice.
• Another example is a famous quote by Samuel Beckett, ‘Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ This quote will motivate people, this one especially for individuals who have just failed or fear failure is a real possibility, and it isn’t just about the words within the sentence that motivate people, it is also often the individuals who say them. Samuel Beckett being a world famous Irish avant-garde novelist who won the 1969 Noble Prize winner in Literature. If very successful individuals have undergone the same hardships, troubles and painful as the average person, it provides greater motivation to carry on. This leads me on nicely to my second reason why I think quotes are so important to modern society.

Impartment of Knowledge/Understanding 

• Quotes tend to come from iconic people, I could come out with the most incredible, out of this world quote that cuts through to the heart of modern day spiritual and mental well-being (very unlikely!) but even if I did the chance people will use it to inspire, motivate and reinvigorate themselves is almost certainly zero…..why? Because (as of yet) I haven’t done anything incredible in my life, I’m not a superstar athletic, a brainiac academic or demon singer, so this plays an important role.
• We can sometimes fool ourselves that we are just missing that nugget of information, the silver bullet of knowledge to unlock what we want most (money, love, power etc) and obtaining the information from someone who is ‘successful’ is all we need to achieve everything.
• This is obviously a myth, such silver bullets do not exist – or at least I’m yet to discover one, but similar to motivation, we don’t need to believe it or believe in it always for it to have effect.

Ways to define ourselves 

• Everyone is looking for the lovely bite-size phrase to define themselves, or their lives.

• When at a dinner party of meeting new people you’ll often be asked questions like: ‘What do you do?’ ‘What is your philosophy?’ ‘How do you define yourself?’. Quotes can provide a useful and succinct answer.
• For example, if someone asks me ‘What is your philosophy?’ I could quote Aristotle, who says ‘We are what we repeatedly do’, so I look to ensure I always do as many positive things as possible each day to help my friends, family & colleagues.
• However, quotes aren’t just a way of defining ourselves. We all have a much deeper yearning to understand who we are and why we are here in the pursuit of increasing our self-worth and happiness.
• Another favourite quote of mine is, ‘The true measurement of a person’s worth isn’t what they say they believe in, but what they do in defence of those beliefs’ by Edward Snowden. It’s something I can live by, something to set my flag upon and can help others understand more about me and my ideals.
• Defining yourself with quotes also helps you connect with others who share the same views. Being within groups is an intrinsic part of being human and quotes help us align with likeminded people.

 

Favourite Quotes 

Below is a list of my favourite 15 quotes right now. I don’t think I have a list of ‘all time favourite quotes’ as these change with my priorities . As I change as a person, so do my favourite quotes.

Financial

• The people who made the money during the Gold Rush were not the people digging but the people selling the tools – Dane Maxwell
• Wealth is just having more cash flow than you need to spend to be happy – Unknown
• Investment isn’t about selecting ‘good investments’, it’s about the process of investment. ‘Good investments’ only come with hindsight – Todd Tressider
• Discipline is just remembering what you want – David Campbell
• Profit is made in buying not selling – Unknown

Motivation

• If information was the answer we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs – Derek Sivers
• Regret is past tense decision making. Eliminate complaining to minimise regret – Tim Ferriss
• Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action – Benjamin Disraeli
• Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett

• True endurance comes from motivation and belief in what you’re doing – Unknown

Spirituality

• Every moment throughout ones life offers an opportunity to be relaxed and responsive or to suffer unnecessarily – Sam Harris
• On one level, Wisdom is nothing more profound than an ability to follow ones own advice – Sam Harris
• Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people we personally dislike – Oscar Wilde
• If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment – Marcus Aurelius
• To be free, to be happy and fruitful, can only be attained through sacrifice of many common but overestimated things – Robert Henri

Conclusion 

• The aim of this post was to highlight the key reasons why I think quotes play an important role for many people and why almost everyone has quotes that have had an important impact on them and helped them in one way or another.
• I’d love to hear your favourite quotes, please leave them in the comments below.

 

Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jakerust/16658635540/in/photolist-ro4RY9-w2e9dX-93UHMc-UyjS-v5mFhz-oQGXRV-2sttg-2stup-dztnV-nmkq-r1HYTy-aWC7jB-81MwUt-kfAQh-nG9RWd-dztr9-3zzC6-dztzJ-dztwV-dztu8-5jjDFb-uRNbpF-vNEqfz-xCp7HW-wHGDNU-w2e97z-vN4zyG-vN4zvW-v5demd-vNEqke-uRDKoA-dzmCRT-vP3kYk-uRDKyW-tZesj2-vP3kTv-uRDKy5-vJJzuB-vw47gN-uRDKvE-vNEqpT-vN4ztS-xCp7zQ-vJBjrJ-vP3kWr-vw477j-xDTmG1-xFkwAa-w1ApPY-xo79Mq