Rating
4/5
Date Started
6/6/2023
Date Completed
6/13/2023
Five Powerful Quotes from the Book
Quote 1
“Stillness is what aims the archer’s arrow. It inspires new ideas. It sharpens perspective and illuminates connections. It slows the ball down so that we might hit it. It generates a vision, helps us resist the passions of the mob, makes space for gratitude and wonder. Stillness allows us to persevere. To succeed. It is the key that unlocks the insights of genius, and allows us regular folks to understand them.
“The promise of this book is the location of that key … and a call not only for possessing stillness, but for radiating it outward like a star—like the sun—for a world that needs light more than ever…
“Martin Luther King Jr. observed that there was a violent civil war raging within each and every person—between our good and bad impulses, between our ambitions and our principles, between what we can be and how hard it is to actually get there.
“In those battles, in that war, stillness is the river and the railroad junction through which so much depends. It is the key …
- “To thinking clearly.
- “To seeing the whole chessboard.
- “To making tough decisions.
- “To managing our emotions.
- “To identifying the right goals.
- “To handling high-pressure situations.
- “To maintaining relationships.
- “To building good habits.
- “To being productive.
- “To physical excellence.
- “To feeling fulfilled.
- “To capturing moments of laughter and joy.
“Stillness is the key to, well, just about everything.
“To being a better parent, a better artist, a better investor, a better athlete, a better scientist, a better human being. To unlocking all that we are capable of in this life.”
Pithy Summary
Quote 2
“Take note of insights you’ve heard. Take the time to feel wisdom flow through your fingertips and onto the page.
“This is what the best journals look like. They aren’t for the reader. They are for the writer. To slow the mind down. To wage peace with oneself.
“Journaling is a way to ask tough questions: Where am I standing in my own way? What’s the smallest step I can take toward a big thing today? Why am I so worked up about this? What blessings can I count right now? Why do I care so much about impressing people? What is the harder choice I’m avoiding? Do I rule my fears, or do they rule me? How will today’s difficulties reveal my character? …
“That is what journaling is about… It’s a few minutes of reflection that both demands and creates stillness. It’s a break from the world. A framework for the day ahead. A coping mechanism for troubles of the hours just past. A revving up of your creative juices, for relaxing and clearing.
“Once, twice, three times a day. Whatever. Find what works for you.
“Just know that it may turn out to be the most important thing you do all day.”
Pithy Summary
Quote 3
“The fact that you are sitting here reading a book is a wonderful step on the journey to wisdom. But don’t stop here—this book is only an introduction to classical thinking and history. Tolstoy expressed his exasperation at people who didn’t read deeply and regularly. ‘I cannot understand,’ he said, ‘how some people can live without communicating with the wisest people who ever lived on earth.’ There’s another line, now cliché, that is even more cutting: People who don’t read have no advantage over those who cannot read…
“Find people you admire and ask how they got where they are. Seek book recommendations. Isn’t that what Socrates would do? Add experience and experimentation on top of this. Put yourself in tough situations. Accept challenges. Familiarize yourself with the unfamiliar. That’s how you widen your perspective and your understanding. The wise are still because they have seen it all. They know what to expect because they’ve been through so much. They’ve made mistakes and learned from them. And so must you.
“Wrestle with big questions. Wrestle with big ideas. Treat your brain like the muscle that it is. Get stronger through resistance and exposure and training.
“Do not mistake the pursuit of wisdom for an endless parade of sunshine and kittens. Wisdom does not immediately produce stillness or clarity. Quite the contrary. It might even make things less clear—make them darker before the dawn.
“Remember, Socrates looked honestly at what he didn’t know. That’s hard. It’s painful to have our illusions punctured. It’s humbling to learn that we are not as smart as we thought we were. It’s also inevitable that the diligent student will uncover disconcerting or challenging ideas—about the world and about themselves. This will be unsettling. How could it not be?
“But that’s okay…
“We want to sit with doubt. We want to savor it. We want to follow it where it leads.
“Because on the other side is truth.”
Pithy Summary
Quote 4
“Maybe it’s not the most virtuous thing to say ‘No, sorry, I can’t’ when you really can but just don’t want to. But can you really? Can you really afford to do it? And does it not harm other people if you’re constantly stretched too thin?
“A pilot gets to say, ‘Sorry, I’m on standby,’ as an excuse to get out of things. Doctors and firemen and police officers get to use being ‘on call’ as a shield. But are we not on call in our own lives? Isn’t there something (or someone) that we’re preserving our full capacities for? Are our own bodies not on call for our families, for our self-improvement, for our own work?
“Always think about what you’re really being asked to give. Because the answer is often a piece of your life, usually in exchange for something you don’t even want. Remember, that’s what time is. It’s your life, it’s your flesh and blood, that you can never get back…
“Most people wake up to face the day as an endless barrage of bewildering and overwhelming choices, one right after another. What do I wear? What should I eat? What should I do first? What should I do after that? What sort of work should I do? Should I scramble to address this problem or rush to put out this fire?
“Needless to say, this is exhausting. It is a whirlwind of conflicting impulses, incentives, inclinations, and external interruptions. It is no path to stillness and hardly a way to get the best out of yourself…
“When we not only automate and routinize the trivial parts of life, but also make automatic good and virtuous decisions, we free up resources to do important and meaningful exploration. We buy room for peace and stillness, and thus make good work and good thoughts accessible and inevitable.
“To make that possible, you must go now and get your house in order. Get your day scheduled. Limit the interruptions. Limit the number of choices you need to make.”
Pithy Summary
Quote 5
“When most of us hear the word ‘leisure,’ we think of lounging around and doing nothing. In fact, this is a perversion of a sacred notion. In Greek, ‘leisure’ is rendered as scholé—that is, school. Leisure historically meant simply freedom from the work needed to survive, freedom for intellectual or creative pursuits. It was learning and study and the pursuit of higher things.
“As society advanced and jobs became increasingly less physical, but more exhausting mentally and spiritually, it became common for leisure to include a diverse array of activities, from reading to woodwork…
“In his essay on leisure, Josef Pieper wrote that ‘the ability to be ‘at leisure’ is one of the basic powers of the human soul.’ But that’s what’s so interesting about it. It’s a physical state—a physical action—that somehow replenishes and strengthens the soul. Leisure is not the absence of activity, it is activity. What is absent is any external justification—you can’t do leisure for pay, you can’t do it to impress people.
“You have to do it for you.”
Pithy Summary
About the Book
Date Published
2019
Stillness Is the Key – Audiobook | Ebook | Hardcover – “All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness–to be steady while the world spins around you. In this book, he outlines a path for achieving this ancient, but urgently necessary way of living. Drawing on a wide range of history’s greatest thinkers, from Confucius to Seneca, Marcus Aurelius to Thich Nhat Hanh, John Stuart Mill to Nietzsche, he argues that stillness is not mere inactivity, but the doorway to self-mastery, discipline, and focus.”
About the Author
Ryan Holiday – “I am Ryan Holiday and I am a writer and media strategist. When I was 19 years old, I dropped out of college to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power. I had a successful marketing career at American Apparel and went on to found a creative agency called Brass Check, which has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors, including Neil Strauss, Tony Robbins and Tim Ferriss. I am the author of ten books, including The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic, Conspiracy and Stillness is the Key which have sold more than 2 million copies in thirty languages and have a following among NFL coaches, world-class athletes, TV personalities, political leaders, and others around the world. I spend much of my time on a ranch outside Austin, Texas where I do my writing and work in between raising cattle, donkeys and goats..”
Additional Resources
- The Ryan Holiday Reading Recommendation Email
- Books To Base Your Life on (The Reading List)
- Ryan Holiday Books and Courses
Tags
Nonfiction | Philosophy | Self-Improvement