From quora
https://www.quora.com/Whats-it-like-to-have-attended-an-elite-school-and-then-be-an-utter-failure-afterward

So, even when things get so bad you don't know if life is worth living, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Try to immerse yourself in an activity that makes you happy. Life will work itself out. You are not a failure, and neither was I.

 

Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. -Arthur Ashe

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.”-Aristotle

Eleanor Roosevelt ;

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one can not be friends with anyone else in the world."

14. "It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan."

19. "The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

23. "You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give."

26. "Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don't be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you."

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a great deal of thought into giving,” –

“Work is always an antidote to depression.”

“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”

“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.”

“I never waste time looking back.”

My favorite bits from "The power of NO" by James Altucher

-By year three you;ve put in 5000-7000 hours of work. That's good enough to be in the top 200-300 people in the world in anything. By year three you will know how to make money.

-What is "it" ? How do I know what I should do ? Whatever area you feel like reading 500 books about. Go to the bookstore or library and find it.

- how to recognize an Abusive person : they try to make you feel guilty, angry, afraid, wrong. They try to make themselves the victim, they turn others against you.
How do I feel about myself when Iam around this person? Do I feel good about myself?
If the answer is no, you know you need to move away from the person. The key is not to engage.

-Letting our thoughts go and being present without naming what is happening all the time gives us a rest and the opportunity to let something else in.

-Be aware that you are making a shift from panic (lots of thoughts) to abundance (fewer thoughts)

-With each thought that comes up, label it as useful or not useful. If I worry about how much money I will have in five years or did at a party last night, this is not useful. What is useful then? Functional things - I need to pack a lunch for the kids right now.

-Sometimes we need rest and proper boundaries. Sometimes we need to do less. When we forget that we have rhythms and cycles just like nature does, we force things, overwork, burn the candle at both ends, and make poor choices as a consequence of exhaustion.

Keeping your stress level down is very important, so here are five things we can think of to say no to so that you can have centered and relaxed days:
 1 Say no to anything that gets in the way of your daily practices, no matter how IMPORTANT it pretends to be.
2 Say no to anything that prevents you from sitting in silence for some time, every day.
4 Do not talk to people who you know do not respect you or who put you down.

- I slide into depression if I forget my daily practice
I started to exercise everyday. I started to eat better. One item for breakfast. A healthy lunch. Tiny dinner. No snacks.
I started to sleep nine hours a night.
I broke off all ties with anyone it felt bad to be around.
I wrote down ideas very day for articles I should write and businesses I could start.
I had to surrender to the fact that I couldn't control everything. But I could be prepared.

-Try this today:
 Write down ten ideas for your job that you think will add above and beyond value.
 Write down the ten next steps for those ideas.

-In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjun that he needs to fight. He is saying that to reach your own divinity, you have to learn to say no and stand up for what is right for you in this moment.You need to learn who you are.

-Rule #1 : Do not do anything you don't want to do.
When you agree to do something you don't want to do, you will resent the person who asked you to do it. You will grow to hate the activity. it will drip like a burning candle into your heart until you're burning with hate for yourself.

-Say no to extra, unnecessary words. Don't say "yeah" in the middle of someone talking. Count to two before responding.
-Complaining is a no!
-If someone is trying to steal our energy, then of course we speak up and do what we can to stop it. We stand up for ourselves.

“ Have as much good nature as good sense since they generally are companions. ”
— William Wycherly

My fave iphone quotes

* If I only had an hour to shop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.

* Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. - Abraham Lincoln

* I have learned not to worry about love but to honor its coming with all my heart. Alize Walker

* Well done is better than well said

* Let no one who loves be called unhappy. for even love unreturned has its rainbow

* Respect a man, he will do more

* How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks -Marcus Aurelius

* What other people think about me is not my business

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* Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value

* The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence - these are the features of Jewish tradition that make me thank my stars that I belong to it - Einstein

There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit. - Alex pope

* Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. -Disraeli

* Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct, they are matters of education and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them. Disraeli

* Sir. I say that justice is truth in action. Disraeli

Friendship is born when one person says to another : "What! You too? I thought I was the only one" CS Lewis

He approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right. Cato the Elder

* A big man is one who makes us feel bigger when we are with him.

* The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along the lines

of excellence.

* Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.

* Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.

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* An artist cannot do anything slovenly. Jane Austen

I love the deep quiet in which I live and grow against the world and harvest what they cannot take from me by fire or sword. Goethe

Just trust yourself and you will then know how to live. Goethe.

Where can I find a man governed by reason instead of habits and urges - Gibran

A purpose of human life, is to love whoever is around to be loved. Kurt Vonnegut

* When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision. Lord Falkland.

* No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it. Seneca

No one is safe from slander. The best way us to pay no attention to it, but live in innocence and let the world talk. Moliere.

The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be. Oprah

A chief event in which we have encountered a mind that startles us. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

* We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. How can we rest the life we've created for ourselves? Who's to blame, who's to credit but us? Who can change it anytime we wish, but us? Richard Bach, One

* To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming is the only end of life. RL Stevenson.

* Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you have received. Seneca

The good befriend themselves - Sophocles

Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer.

* Men judge us by the success of our efforts. God looks at the efforts themselves.

* There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which

are beyond the power of our will.

* The real service a friend can really render is to keep up your curage by holding up to

you a mirror is which you can see a noble image of yourself.