Quote file on 2011-04-02

[Nagerusu]

Upon browsing the internet, visiting blogs about ERE, FI and minimalism, I gather a substantial amount of interesting quotes.

What I do with them is the following:

I put them in a quotes.txt file.

Then I wrote a small program that randomly takes a line from that quotes.txt file and displays it at the top of my screen.

This gives me random inspirational quotes throughout the day.
For the interested people, here are the quotes I gathered so far:
I am an investor.

My favourite holding period is forever.

The tortoise almost always beats the hare.

If I can't afford to lose it, I don't use it.

Debt is a disease.

Interest is something that should always be collected, never paid.

Insanity is, doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

I force myself to sell high and buy low by periodic rebalancing.

JOB = Just Over Broke

Poor people buy liabilities, rich people buy assets.

Perfection is reached, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.

He who owns little is little owned.

The best things in life are not things.

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

Meyers' Law--It is a simple task to make things complex, but a complex task to make things simple.

Courage is nothing more than taking one step more than you think you can.

Courage is not the absence of fear, it's knowing that something else is more important.

Don't get really good at what you don't want to do.

You need affection. (Through spending time with family.)

You need protection. (Protected from harm by ma/ from the elements by a place to live.)

You need understanding. (Talk to friends.)

You need participation. (Participation in martial arts.)

You need leisure. (...)

You need creation. (music, ...)

You need identity. (I am an investor, a friend, a son ...)

You need freedom. (ER(E))

1. The Earth is our Mother, care for her.

2. Honor all your relations.

3. Open your heart and soul to the Great Spirit.

4. All life is sacred; treat all things with respect.

5. Take from the Earth what is needed and nothing more.

6. Do what needs to be done for the good of all.

7. Give constant thanks to the Great Spirit for each new day.

8. Speak the truth, but only of the good in others.

9. Follow the rhythms of nature, rise and retire with the sun.

10. Enjoy life's journey, but leave no tracks.

All progress begins with telling the truth.

You can not "positive think" your way to wealth.

When the going gets though, cash is king.

Attachment leads to jealousy... the shadow of greed, that is. (Yoda)

Why aren't you rich already?

The perceived value of our stuff keeps us tied to it, when in reality, freedom from it is priceless.

Everything crazy has been done already, so you might as well do it again.

In order to do something with ease, you must first do it with difficulty.

If you're a man with convictions, violence is inevitable.

Lose the battle, not the lesson.
I read the quotes online by coincidence and let them inspire me forever.

[JohnnyH]

These quotes are all from here?.. Do you have who said them?
I used to keep updating a collection of quotes, but have been neglecting it recently... Here are a couple off the top.
Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. ~ Henry J Kaiser
Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private live, have been the consequences of action without thought. ~Bernard M. Baruch
If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves. ~Thomas Alva Edison
Many bad players will not improve because they cannot bear self-knowledge. ~David Mamet
Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit at the one-yard line. ~H. Ross Perot
In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. ~Robert Heinlein
Zorba the Greek: Damn it boss, I like you too much not to say it. You've got everything except one thing: madness! A man needs a little madness, or else ...he never dares cut the rope and be free!
Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them. ~Ann Landers
It's the job that's never started that takes longest to finish. ~J.R.R. Tolkien
Ninety-eight percent of what I worried about never happened. - Mark Twain
The man that makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. - Edward Phelps
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. - Sir Winston Churchill
There are two things to aim at in life: first; to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. ~Logan Pearsall Smith
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. ~ Buddha
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations. ~Edward De Bono
There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means. ~ Calvin Coolidge
Nothing in the world can take the place of PERSISTENCE. Talent will not…nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with Talent.

Genius will not….unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education alone will not…..the world is full of educated failures.

PERSISTENCE and DETERMINATION alone are OMNIPOTENT

~ Calvin Coolidge
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. ~Alexander Graham Bell
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.- T.S. Eliot
Nothing is inevitable until it happens. ~J.P. Taylor
A goal without a plan is just a wish.

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
We find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.

~Maxwell Maltz
There are no hopeless situations: there are only men who have grown hopeless about them.

~Clare Boothe Luce
I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest to make money they didn't want, to buy thing they don't need to impress people they don't like. ~Emile Henry Gauvreau
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind. ~Leonardo da Vinci

[Nagerusu]

@JohnnyH: No, those quotes are not all from here, but from all sites I visited regarding early retirement and minimalism.

Unfortunately for you, I don't keep sources or names... just the quotes. I'm a minimalist, I only keep what I need

If I read something and I like it, I copy+paste it immediately before moving on. Since it gets displayed in my status bar at the top of my screen, adding a name or source would make the line too long.
You have some good quotes too. I especially like this one:

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. ~ Henry J Kaiser

[mikeBOS]

A few of my favorites:
"We sought workers, and human beings came."

- Max Frisch
"The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted."

- D.H. Lawrence
"There is no wealth but life."

- John Ruskin
"Duty largely consists of pretending that the trivial is critical."

- John Fowles
"O that a man might know the end of this day's business ere it come!"

- Shakespeare
"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind."

- Aristotle
"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed?"

- Thoreau

[Nagerusu]

I got some more:
Have an attitude of gratitude.
If you expect no results, you'll never be disappointed.
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.
To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person.
Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.
So little time, so little to do.
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself.
Better to sit all night than to go to bed with a dragon.
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training.
No ego, no pain.
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Reduce, refuse, rejoice.
There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start and so on.

[akratic]

the more you know, the less you need

[Nagerusu]

@akratic: Ah, I know that one and yet it's not in my quote file for some unexplicable reason. I'll have to fix that when I get home.

[mikeBOS]

Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion.
Jean Jacques Rousseau

[JasonR]

o

[Stahlmann]

I'm getting high, so evacuate the dance floor!

I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path. ... This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found Lies, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

Groupies please PM me!

[Lemur]

Atomic Habits is the book I am reading lately and it is often filled with these quote nuggets. I like this one as it has been keeping me going on various goals as I've been shifting my mind away from end-goals and towards day to day accomplishments. Its helping me to be a little bit more present-oriented where I usually live in a future-oriented state.

When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.

Also a quote by Carlos Zafon in a fiction book I'm still reading..."The Labyrinth of the Spirits"

A story is, after all, a conversation between the narrator and the reader, and just as narrators can only relate as far as their ability will permit, so too readers can only read as far as what is already written in their souls. This is the golden rule that sustains every artifice of paper and ink. Because when the lights go out, when the music ends and the stalls are empty again, the only thing that matters is the mirage that has been engraved in the theater of the imagination all readers hold in their mind.

[Stahlmann]

- Bucholc is dead! do you know? ... he had factories, he had millions, he was a whole count and he is dead! And I have nothing and I still have promissory notes under protest for tomorrow, but I'm alive! God is good, God is very good!

Władysław Stanisław Reymont, The Promised Land. Volume 1

[Stahlmann]

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

[zbigi]

- Bucholc is dead! do you know? ... he had factories, he had millions, he was a whole count and he is dead! And I have nothing and I still have promissory notes under protest for tomorrow, but I'm alive! God is good, God is very good!

Władysław Stanisław Reymont, The Promised Land. Volume 1

I remember "The Promised Land" being a great read (the movie is also great), recommend to anyone interested in novels from the industrial era. Reymont was extremely talented, his Nobel prize was well-deserved.