R. Colin Kennedy > R.'s Quotes

“It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation

“To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.”
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation

“You’re surrounded by people in the waking period, and you feel their eyes and their hopes on you. You can’t stand up under it. In the sleep period, you’re free.”
― Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire

“Media companies focused on things like creating great stories whereas technology companies focused on creating a better way of doing things. We began to think about new ideas and about forming a new company.”
― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

“What would you do if capital were free?” is a dangerous question to ask an entrepreneur. It’s kind of like asking a fat person, “What would you do if ice cream had the exact same nutritional value as broccoli?”
― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

“Startup CEOs should not play the odds. When you are building a company, you must believe there is an answer and you cannot pay attention to your odds of finding it. You just have to find it. It matters not whether your chances are nine in ten or one in a thousand; your task is the same.”
― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

“I don’t believe in statistics. I believe in calculus.”
― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

“The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

“be a voice not an echo”
― Albert Einstein

“Ware the man who fakes a limp.”
― Stephen King, The Gunslinger

“Spend zero time on what you could have done, and devote all of your time on what you might do. Because in the end, nobody cares; just run your company.”
― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

“I started the day with some nothin’ tea. Nothin’ tea is easy to make. First, get some hot water, then add nothin’.”
― Andy Weir, The Martian

“We're forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can't be understood.”
― Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel

“Fear is the mind-killer.”
― Frank Herbert , Dune

“Throughout all of this, my parents did not forget my education. Not a formal education but the education that mattered. What to value. What to hold on to. What to let go of. What to fight for and what to discard. Where the traps were.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Borne