Ryan Holiday

Author

1987-06-16

Ryan Holiday is an American author and media strategist known for popular books on Stoic philosophy. His work focuses on practical ethics, discipline, and decision-making.

Quotes by Ryan Holiday

When you can break apart something, or look at it from some new angle, it loses its power over you.
Read quote
Let others slap each others on the back while you're back in the lab or the gym or pounding the pavement.
Read quote
Doing great work is a struggle. It's draining, it's demoralizing, it's frightening - not always, but it can feel that way when we're deep in the middle of it.
Read quote
The combination of power, fear, and mania can be deadly. The leader, convinced that he might be betrayed, acts first and betrays others first. Afraid that he's not well liked, he works so hard to get others to like him that it has the opposite effect. Convinced of mismanagement, he micromanages and becomes the source of the mismanagement. And on and on - the things we fear or dread, we blindly inflict on ourselves.
Read quote
When you can break apart something, or look at it from some new angle, it loses its power over you.
Read quote
Let others slap each others on the back while you're back in the lab or the gym or pounding the pavement.
Read quote
The combination of power, fear, and mania can be deadly. The leader, convinced that he might be betrayed, acts first and betrays others first. Afraid that he's not well liked, he works so hard to get others to like him that it has the opposite effect. Convinced of mismanagement, he micromanages and becomes the source of the mismanagement. And on and on - the things we fear or dread, we blindly inflict on ourselves.
Read quote
Doing great work is a struggle. It's draining, it's demoralizing, it's frightening - not always, but it can feel that way when we're deep in the middle of it.
Read quote
When I lived in Louisiana, 'Django Unchained' was shot at my neighbor's house. They shot a Sly Stallone movie in my gym.
Read quote
We only have so much energy for our work, for our relationships, for ourselves. A smart person understands this and guards it carefully. Meanwhile, idiots focus on marginal productivity hacks and gains while they leak out energy each passing day.
Read quote
Everyone needs to start doing interviews over email. Whether you're a journalist or a spokesperson speaking to the media, you're better off communicating questions, statements, or inquiries via email.
Read quote
It angers me to see armed defenders at the bottom of Lost Cause statues, adding a renewed threat of violence to icons that are themselves part of an ideology of violence and intimidation.
Read quote
Writing the perfect paper is a lot like a military operation. It takes discipline, foresight, research, strategy, and, if done right, ends in total victory.
Read quote
Pretty much everyone's career starts the same way: with grunt work. Not just the cliched fetching of coffee, but other lowly tasks: taking notes in meetings, preparing paperwork, scheduling, intensive research - even flat-out doing our bosses' work for them.
Read quote
The problem with a lot of marketing advice is that the examples they use are not exactly typical. It's hard for businesses, particularly smaller businesses, to relate to the bold innovations of companies like Apple or Tesla.
Read quote
As tough an idea as it often is to stomach, the best way to thrive in a world that requires grunt work is to stop seeing it as grunt work.
Read quote
Growth hackers don't tolerate waste.
Read quote
If you ask most smart or successful people where they learned their craft, they will not talk to you about their time in school. It's always a mentor, a particularly transformative job, or a period of experimentation or trial and error.
Read quote
Reddit is like any democratic form of government - unless carefully guarded by its leaders and members, its trusts and privileges can be and often are abused.
Read quote
I don't play videogames and generally think that online activism is a giant waste of time.
Read quote