8 Quotes About Excellence I Think of Often
Some of my favorite quotes from philosophers on meaning and mattering.
I read a lot. And I find myself leaning on the wisdom of my favorite authors and philosophers when I’m navigating change, challenges, and the unknowns of life.
These timeless quotes are worth returning to again and again. Each one offers remarkable economy—just a few words that hold deep, expansive truths. In a time of rapid change and constant noise, these humanistic ideas feel more grounding than ever.
These quotes have shaped the way I think, write, and live. They’re the kind I carry around, not just in my head, but in how I try to show up in the world.
I hope you find something in them that resonates.
Release from trying to be perfect always. A rigid insistence on perfection zaps our life force and destroys productive energy.
Acceptance and self-improvement can coexist—the former is often a precursor to the latter. If you want to do hard things, you’ve got to start where you are.
Whether it’s for a person, a place, or a pursuit, love is an ongoing practice.
It must be nourished and renewed.
We can, and often do, grow from struggle. We gain wisdom, compassion, strength, and resilience. But this sort of growth takes time, and you can’t force it.
There are no shortcuts. Fads, quick fixes, and hacks come and go. Anything that stands the test of time requires patience, commitment, and persistence.
It’s easy to obsess over achieving a goal, but 99.99% of life is lived on the path. How you’ll feel about any reward you attain is directly related to how you go about attaining it.
This refers to the Greek myth of Sisyphus: the Gods condemned him to push a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down for all of eternity. In many ways, we are all Sisyphus; we are all pushing that boulder up the hill again and again. We can become negative and nihilistic about it, or we can embrace the struggle and find meaning and fulfillment.
We must accept that some level of anxiety is a necessary part of growth, a prerequisite for becoming who we really are in a world of limitless possibilities.
Really enjoying your recent focus on "meaning and mattering." Easy to understand and practical in application. It prompted a wonderful discussion with my wife about our own relationship to work and how it is shifting as we go deeper into our careers.
On the subject of quotes that inspire, my mom shared this one with me when I was in high school and 35 years later it remains at the top of my list. I hope your readers will share their own!
"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but ... life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” - Gabriel García Márquez
I always come back to a ZaMM quote too: “We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people's lives.”