“One of the great insights of psychoanalysis is that you never really want an object, you only want the wanting, which means the solution is to set your sights on an impossible ideal and work hard to reach it. You won’t. That’s not just okay, that’s the point. It’s ok if you fantasize about knowing kung fu if you then try to actually learn kung fu, eventually you will understand you can never really know kung fu, and then you will die. And it will have been worth it.”
-The Last Psychiatrist

“You can be remarkable or busy, but not both.”
-Cal Newport

“We all have stories that we tell ourselves about what our lives are—and those stories are always wrong.”
-Shawn Coyne

“Contracts mean NOTHING for it is ALWAYS the character of the person signing that contract. This is what lawyers do not get.”
-Martin Armstrong

“If you have a ‘passion for writing’ and never do it, you don’t have a passion for writing.”
-Jake Seliger

“Observe the reality as it is. As it is, not as you wish it to be. Perhaps your breath is deep. Perhaps your breath is shallow. Perhaps you breathed in through the left nostril. Perhaps you breathed in through the right nostril. It makes no difference.”
-Satya Narayan Goenka

I’ve just finished a huge swath of . So I’m doing a special quote list of his quotes I liked. Note: A LOT of these come from , which is one of the best that I follow. Bolded quotes are my personal favorites:

“You should write the book you would want to read, not the one you believe you should write.”
-David Ritz

“We are interested in others when they are interested in us.”
-Publius Syrus

“A man generally has two reasons for doing things; one that sounds good, and a real one.”
-JP Morgan