Top 128 Quotes & Sayings by Ryan Holiday - Page 2

The news as entertainment is the real danger, because the truth or accuracy of what it is reporting becomes irrelevant.

One of the ironies of being with someone you really love for a long time is becoming completely incapable of handling stressful or difficult things by yourself.

Like most reasonable people, it saddens me when I see Americans celebrating a heritage they don't understand.

If the media is a farce, why should you be the only one stuck with rules and restrictions?

When I lived in Louisiana, 'Django Unchained' was shot at my neighbor's house. They shot a Sly Stallone movie in my gym.

Let's be clear: there was no golden age of journalism. The media has always been bad. And instead of improving, it spent a lot of time and energy making up its own myth.

Times change. Context changes. Just because something is old and a 'part of our history' shouldn't mean we are forced to honor it forever.

Everyone faces adversity.

We often learn the hard way that our world is ruled by external factors. We don't always get what is rightfully ours, even if we've earned it.

In every job and position, there are valuable lessons to be learned. Even in a nasty, abusive, toxic workplace, you're being taught precisely how not to run an organization.

I wholeheartedly agree that many media 'standards' can feel disingenuous or, in fact, be a cover for less-than-honest behavior.

It angers me to see armed defenders at the bottom of Lost Cause statues, adding a renewed threat of violence to icons that are themselves part of an ideology of violence and intimidation.

Online journalism has always had a sourcing problem. From using unverified 'anonymous tips' to repeating whatever rumor or speculation people are chattering about, the general ethic is, 'We'll publish just about anything.'

Every job carries occupational hazards.

Being criticized in the media is a good problem to have - most of the time. It means you're doing something that is at least interesting or cool or crazy enough to be noticed. It might not always feel good, but it's usually better than the alternative of obscurity.

If you need to fudge the facts a little bit to make your narrative work, there is nothing anyone can do to stop you.

Ego is certainly there in many of the greatest and most dizzying tales of success - but it's there in some of the greatest stories of failure and self-implosion as well.

The best kind of marketing messages are the ones that don't seem like marketing messages. Because it means that the viewers' defenses are down.

Do I regret how my life turned out? Of course not - not for a single second.

In my experience, marketing is best when it proves the product it is supporting.

As someone responsible for my own fair share of marketing stunts, I am suspicious and cynical - I'll disclose that right up front.

In June 2007, I finished up school for the year. I didn't know it at the time, but I was done with college forever. By the end of the summer, I had dropped out and would not return.

Anyone who faults Romney or Obama or any public figure for demanding quote approval is missing the point. The journalists were no abused weaklings here. They made a bargain for access to these newsworthy figures that they thought was in their favor - they're only complaining because they got caught.

Every media appearance is a learning experience about the media outlet and their journalists and their feelings about you, so treat it as such.

I took the 'Seinfeld' tour of New York once - and if I think about it too hard, my brain explodes.

Growth hacking isn't some proprietary technical process shrouded in secrecy. In fact, it has grown and developed in the course of very public conversations. There are no trade secrets to guard.

We want things to go perfectly, so we naturally tell ourselves that we'll get started once the conditions are right or once we have our bearings, when, really, it would be better to focus on making do with how things actually are.

Reddit is like any democratic form of government - unless carefully guarded by its leaders and members, its trusts and privileges can be and often are abused.

Understanding how the media actually works is critical. Because editors depend on ignorance and media illiteracy to ply their trade. The fact that many readers expect fact checking, editorial oversight, and ethics actually makes it easier for the media to be lazy.

The news is notoriously inaccurate, and our memory of it is even worse.

What people often forget is that for the parties involved, the media game is a vicious contest.

Everyone needs to start doing interviews over email. Whether you're a journalist or a spokesperson speaking to the media, you're better off communicating questions, statements, or inquiries via email.

Take pride in your work. But it is not all there is.

The risks of speaking extemporaneously are apparent the first time you wing it and promptly put your foot in your mouth.

Here's the thing I've learned about ideas: It's your job to have them.

The primary occupational hazard of blogging is this: it's easier when you yourself take on some of the traits of insanity. It's a job that requires the doer to be selfish, self-absorbed, and superficial.

As tough an idea as it often is to stomach, the best way to thrive in a world that requires grunt work is to stop seeing it as grunt work.

No matter how commonplace or dull your first job's duties seem, chances are you can find something to do that others don't want to and make it your own.

The idea that only the swaggering, all-knowing, and ruthlessly ambitious succeed is a lie. One that has discouraged so many people with so much potential - and worse, encouraged many more to crash and burn.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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