Xiao > Xiao's Quotes

“And the terrible thing, the terrible thing is, but the good thing too, the saving grace, is that if something happened to one of us--excuse me for saying this--but if something happened to one of us tomorrow, I think the other one, the other person, would grieve for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have someone else soon enough. All this, all of this love we're talking about, it would just be a memory. Maybe not even a memory.”
― Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

“One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.”
― Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”
― Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

“People think about life in terms of changes, not levels. They can be changes from the status quo or changes from what was expected, but whatever form they take, it is changes that make us happy or miserable.”
― Richard H. Thaler

“One of the things he told me was that my desire to be liked by everyone would hold me back. He said that when you want to change things, you can’t please everyone. If you do please everyone, you aren’t making enough progress.”
― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

“Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me. Insisting on this story was a form of mind control, but for the most part, it worked. Every time I heard a sound of unknown origin or felt something horrible cohering in my imagination, I pushed it away. I simply did not let myself become afraid. Fear begets fear. Power begets power.”
― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

“That’s what fathers do if they don’t heal their wounds. They wound their children in the same place.”
― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

“There's no way to know what makes one thing happen and not another. What leads to what. What destroys what. What causes what to flourish or die or take another course.”
― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

“He hadn't loved me well in the end, but he'd loved me well when it mattered.”
― Cheryl Strayed

“The quality of the problem that is found is a forerunner of the quality of the solution that is attained. It is in fact the discovery and creation of problems rather than any superior knowledge, technical skill, or craftsmanship, that often sets the creative person apart from others in his field.”
― Daniel H Pink

“Never argue. To win an argument is to lose a sale.”
― Daniel H Pink

“When people in authority want the rest of us to behave, it matters—first and foremost—how they behave.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

“We are all of us not merely liable to fear, we are also prone to be afraid of being afraid, and the conquering of fear produces exhilaration.…The contrast between the previous apprehension and the present relief and feeling of security promotes a self-confidence that is the very father and mother of courage.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

“Why do we all say we prefer honesty but rarely give that courtesy to others?”
― Aziz Ansari, Modern Romance: An Investigation

“There’s something uniquely valuable in everyone, and we’ll be much happier and better off if we invest the time and energy it takes to find it.”
― Aziz Ansari, Modern Romance: An Investigation

“One thing that Musk holds in the highest regard is resolve, and he respects people who continue on after being told no.”
― Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Inventing the Future

“We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters”
― Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future

“What Musk has developed that so many of the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley lack is a meaningful worldview. He’s the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted. He’s less a CEO chasing riches than a general marshaling troops to secure victory. Where Mark Zuckerberg wants to help you share baby photos, Musk wants to . . . well . . . save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation.”
― Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Inventing the Future

“I’m not sure why I’d want to talk about extremely sad events. It does no good for the future. If you’ve got other kids and obligations, then wallowing in sadness does no good for anyone around you. I’m not sure what should be done in such situations.”
― Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Inventing the Future

“The longer you wait to fire someone the longer it has been since you should have fired them,”
― Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Inventing the Future

“For Gracias, the Tesla and SpaceX investor and Musk’s friend, the 2008 period told him everything he would ever need to know about Musk’s character. He saw a man who arrived in the United States with nothing, who had lost a child, who was being pilloried in the press by reporters and his ex-wife and who verged on having his life’s work destroyed. “He has the ability to work harder and endure more stress than anyone I’ve ever met,” Gracias said. “What he went through in 2008 would have broken anyone else. He didn’t just survive. He kept working and stayed focused.” That ability to stay focused in the midst of a crisis stands as one of Musk’s main advantages over other executives and competitors. “Most people who are under that sort of pressure fray,” Gracias said. “Their decisions go bad. Elon gets hyperrational. He’s still able to make very clear, long-term decisions. The harder it gets, the better he gets. Anyone who saw what he went through firsthand came away with more respect for the guy. I’ve just never seen anything like his ability to take pain.”
― Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Inventing the Future

“Our deepest (and fastest) yearnings can be tempered by reason and experience; our more prudent judgments softened by desire and need.”
― Kayt Sukel, The Art of Risk: The New Science of Courage, Caution, and Chance

“If you are going to complain, blame, or criticize, then do something about it... Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.”
― Shu Hattori, The McKinsey Edge: Success Principles from the WorldΓÇÖs Most Powerful Consulting Firm

“Show your vulnerability, but have faith. You will succeed. Growth is not glamorous.”
― Shu Hattori, The McKinsey Edge: Success Principles from the WorldΓÇÖs Most Powerful Consulting Firm

“A happy man has no past, while an unhappy man has nothing else.”
― Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

“The path to survival was to never give up on the small things.”
― Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

“He loved his family. But he was not proud of them. Their principal achievement was survival. It would take him a lifetime to appreciate what an achievement that was.”
― Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

“No one makes love like they make a wall or a house. They catch it like a cold. It makes them miserable and then it passes, and pretending otherwise is the road to hell.”
― Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

“Later, crying became simply affirmation of feeling, and feeling the only compass in life. Feeling became fashionable and emotion became a theatre in which people were players who no longer knew who they were off the stage.”
― Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North