20 Quotes for 2025

For 30 years, I’ve collected ideas that inspire and challenge me—from books, podcasts, and conversations with coaches, leaders, and speakers across many walks of life. Keeping them to myself now feels foolish. So I won’t.

There’s a reason I read so many of those books with a fluorescent pen in hand, highlighting passages I knew I’d want to revisit. Today, that practice lives on in my growing “Quotes and Reminders” document, built page by page over the years.

This is Year 2 of See, Live, Eat. Each December, I share 20 Quotes to Remember.

Here's this years list:

1. "Caring about everything is a disaster. Caring about nothing is also a disaster. Nurture the small pocket of things that truly matter to you.” - James Clear

2. "You come to understand that most people are neither for you nor against you, they are thinking about themselves. You learn that no matter how hard you try to please, some people in this world are not going to love you, a lesson that is at first troubling and then really quite relaxing.” - John W. Gardner

3. "Once you've started, you're halfway there." - Horace, the Roman poet, in his work Epistles on the importance of starting things

4. "The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. When you concentrate on what you have, you'll always end up having more." - Talk show host Oprah Winfrey on emphasizing gratitude

5. “A person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.” - Tim Ferriss

6. "People are always looking for the single magic bullet that will completely change everything. There is no single magic bullet. Progress is about bridging the gap between what we observe and what we can imagine — one careful step at a time.” - Animal behavior scientist Temple Grandin on progress

7. “You can have results or excuses. Not both.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger

8. "If you dig a hole and it's in the wrong place, digging it deeper isn't going to help.” - Graphic designer and illustrator Seymour Chwast

9. "If you're trying to choose between two theories and one gives you an excuse for being lazy, the other one is probably right.” - Entrepreneur and investor Paul Graham on fooling yourself

10. "Always aspire to act in a way that cancels out someone else's cruel or stupid behavior.” - Journalist and novelist Carl Hiaasen on setting a high standard

11. "You have to finish things — that's what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.” - Novelist and comic book writer Neil Gaiman on the source of improvement

12. "A simple rule that makes life easier: Always strive to give value before you ask for value.” - James Clear

13. "Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.” - Theologian and philosopher Saint Augustine on doing what you can for who you know.

14. “The test of a student is not how much he knows, but how much he wants to know.” - Travel writer and essayist Alice Wellington Rollins on the importance of drive

15. "How could you go about creating a happy, loving, peaceful world? By learning a simple, beautiful, but painful art called the art of looking. This is how you do it: Every time you find yourself irritated or angry with someone, the one to look at is not that person but yourself. The question to ask is not, ‘What’s wrong with this person?’ but ‘What does this irritation tell me about myself?’” - The Way to Love by Anthony De Mello

16. "People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time, they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy." - Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

17. "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." - Philosopher Simone Weil on the gift of offering someone your whole and complete focus:

18. "Habits are either the best or the worst things in the world; they either carry us to heaven or hurl us to hell. Form only those that will prove an honor to you." - Philip Dormer Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield; Source: Letters to His Son (1746-1770)

19. “If you want a simple formula for having a good day, then get a workout done and do your most important task before lunch. Knock out those two things by noon and you really feel like you're ahead of the day.” - James Clear

20. "When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you." - Lao Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher, on the overlap between respect and self-alignment: