Neil Pasricha > Quotes

“Life is so great that we only get a tiny moment to enjoy everything we see. And that moment is right now. And that moment is counting down. And that moment is always, always fleeting. You will never be as young as you are right now.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“The [Five Second Rule] has many variations, including The Three Second Rule, The Seven Second Rule, and the extremely handy and versatile The However Long It Takes Me to Pick Up This Food Rule.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“Gliding down the bike path on a Saturday morning, you whip by somebody peddling in the opposite direction and give each other a nod. For a moment it's like "Hey, we're both doing the same thing. Let's be friends for a second.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“We're all going to get old one day. So let's just love the age we've got and let's not crave the age we're not. Amen, sing it to your mama.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“Life's too short not to sleep when you feel like it.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“Start doing something, you'll continue.. why? Because motivation doesn't cause action. Action causes motivation.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“Because, life's too short, my friends. Let's squeeze in as many laughs as we can get.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“A long hug when you really need it Sometimes we all get rattled. When bad news surprises you, painful memories flash back, or heavy moments turn your stomach to mush, it’s great to fall into a warm and comforting pair of big, wide open arms. Shaking with sobs, dripping with tears, you snort up your runny nose and smear snot across their shoulder as that hug relaxes you and comforts you and helps you get through everything, even for a minute, even for a moment. Maybe there are “It’s going to be okay” whispers, some gentle back rubbing, or just the quiet silence of knowing that they’re not going to let go until you let go first. As their steady arms support you, and the pain washes over you, the hug gives you a warm glow in a shivery moment. So when you eventually pull back, smile that classic “I’m sorry and thank you” smile, and swipe wet bangs off your forehead, you still might not feel great, but if you’re lucky you’ll feel a little more AWESOME!”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things

“Honey, have you seen my measuring tape?”
“I think it’s in that drawer in the kitchen with the scissors, matches, bobby pins, Scotch tape, nail clippers, barbecue tongs, garlic press, extra buttons, old birthday cards, soy sauce packets thick rubber bands, stack of Christmas napkins, stained take-out menus, old cell-phone chargers, instruction booklet for the VCR, some assorted nickels, an incomplete deck of cards, extra chain links for a watch, a half-finished pack of cough drops, a Scrabble piece I found while vacuuming, dead batteries we aren’t fully sure are dead yet, a couple screws in a tiny plastic bag left over from the bookshelf, that lock with the forgotten combination, a square of carefully folded aluminum foil, and expired pack of gum, a key to our old house, a toaster warranty card, phone numbers for unknown people, used birthday candles, novelty bottle openers, a barbecue lighter, and that one tiny little spoon.”
“Thanks, honey.”
AWESOME!”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of (Even More) Awesome

“Don't take advice,
The answers are all inside you,
Think deep and decide what's best,
Go forth and be happy,
And don't take advice.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“The Surprise Attack. This is when you think someone scaring you will frighten the hiccups away. Of course, popping a paper bag behind you or clapping in your ear isn’t going to cut it. No, this only works when somebody shoves you off a tall skyscraper ledge into a properly rigged-up safety net forty stories below.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of (Even More) Awesome

“I am convinced that life is 10% what happens and 90% how I react to it.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“And so whether you were six with the chicken pox, nine with the flu, twelve with a broken arm, or fifteen with menstrual cramps, you could count on sixty solid minutes with the company of that old seventies set, lots of one-dollar bets, and advice to neuter your pet, all crunched into the best sick-day game show yet!”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“Greek philosopher Epictetus says, “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“Pain. It’s there for a reason. Whether your’e shredding your legs on a raspberry bush, scalding your hand in hot water, or taking an arrow to the chest in the forest, I got bad news for you, brother: That’s gonna hurt. Yes, when our bodies take blows, those powerful jolts make us cry salty tears, run for the hills, or crashland in hospital beds with limbs hanging everywhere.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of (Even More) Awesome

“A famous Persian proverb hung on my aunt’s kitchen wall reads, “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“Bakery air is that steaming hot front of thick, buttery fumes waiting for you just inside the door of a bakery. And I am just going to tell you straight up: That is some fine air!”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“Thomas Jefferson said, “Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“There is nothing more satisfying than being loved for who you are and nothing more painful than being loved for who you're not but pretending to be.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me--This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honored even half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“The point is it’s such a great feeling to scarf cookies with abandon like Cookie Monster.
Truly, he is the role model for us all.
AWESOME!”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of (Even More) Awesome

“Have you ever put finger, algea-filled lake-water, or shampoo in there? Yeah, that gets your eyes screaming in pain pretty quick, doesn't it? Unless you're using baby No More Tears shampoo, of course, in which case feel free to lather your eyeballs right on up, no worries.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of Awesome

“The fact that you can go to the bathroom on an airplane is pretty novel. I bet nobody expected that a hundred years ago. Can you imagine two sailors looking over the front rails of their massive ocean liner in the early 1900s, one of them pointing way up in the clouds and whispering to the other, “One day a man will take a crap up there.” No, me either.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of (Even More) Awesome

“Wherever you are, it is your own friends who make your world.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“I will raise you like my own,” I promised the tiny basil pot that day. “I will give you sunlight, I will give you water, I will give you love.”
“I will eat your limbs,” my girlfriend helpfully added rubbing her belly and licking her lips like a grizzly bear gazing up at a sticky beehive in a tall pine tree.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of (Even More) Awesome

“Hit me up at idontcheckthisaccount@sorryaboutthat.com.
AWESOME!”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of (Even More) Awesome

“Teddy Roosevelt said, “The best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“Just keep learning, keep changing and keep growing and promise me that you will never retire.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

“I have always been paranoid about waking people up. When I was younger and would come home late, I would take about twenty minutes to get from the driveway into my bed. I tiptoed up the walk, slid my house key in the door very slowly, took my shoes off outside, and crept upstairs to the bathroom like a burglar. Often I wouldn’t even flush until morning, preferring to let my business simmer overnight rather than wake somebody up with the sound of it zooming through walls on its way out of the house.”
― Neil Pasricha, The Book of (Even More) Awesome