Essentialism: only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.

Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is important this very second.

Discern the vital few from the trivial Many.

Done right, a strategic intent is really one decision that makes 1,000 decisions.

I think we are in a non-essentialist bubble—everything seems important—so of course nothing is.

Remember that if you don’t prioritize your life someone else will.

Play stimulates the parts of the brain involved in both careful, logical reasoning and carefree, unbound exploration.

I think we’ve been oversold the value of more and undersold the value of less.

We often think of choice as a thing. But a choice is not a thing. Our options may be things, but a choice—a choice is an action. It is not just something we have but something we do.

The ability to choose cannot be taken away or even given away-it can only be forgotten.

There should be no shame in admitting to a mistake; after all, we really are only admitting that we are now wiser than we once were.

If you will be deep enough to concentrate and study or rehearse anything, the world will bow in honor to you.

Publish a book before you’re too old to read it without glasses.

Right then, it didn't matter what his reasons were. All I knew that I was sick of him breaking my heart.

I myself am consummately middle class. We grew up in upper-middle-class suburbs in Oklahoma City, and thats very much the same ethos as what Richard Yates and John Cheever wrote about.

Is it okay to go the roof of the tallest building in your town and jerk off into the street?

As an entrepreneur making decisions for your company, always go back to your first principles of what's important to you and why you started in the first place.

You cannot disgrace a disgraceful man; you cannot make a shameless man feel ashamed; you cannot make a cockroach a cockroach, because it is already a cockroach!

When one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance.

Every expert was once a beginner.

Science is the storytelling of our time.