Robert Greene
Quotes from Robert Greene
"In our culture we tend to equate thinking and intellectual powers with success and achievement. In many ways, however, it is an emotional quality that separates those who master a field from the many who simply work at a job."
123
"Our levels of desire, patience, persistence, and confidence end up playing a much larger role in success than shear reasoning powers."
124
"Feeling motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive."
125
"First, you must see your attempt at attaining mastery as something extremely necessary and positive... Second, you must convince yourself of the following: people get the mind and quality of brain that they deserve through their actions in life."
126
"In moving toward mastery, you are bringing your mind closer to reality and to life itself."
127
"Anything that is alive is in a continual state of change and movement. The moment that you rest, thinking that you have attained the level you desire, a part of your mind enters a phase of decay."
128
"At your birth a seed is planted. That seed is your uniqueness. It wants to grow, transform itself, and flower to its full potential. It has a natural, assertive energy to it. Your Life's Task is to bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work."
130
"The process of realizing your Life's Task comes in three stages: First, you must connect with your inclinations, that sense of uniqueness. The first step then is always inward. You search the past for signs of that inner voice or force. You clear away the other voices that might confuse you- parents and peers. You look for an underlying pattern, a core to your character that you must understand as deeply as possible."
131
"Our evolution as a species has depended on the creation of a tremendous diversity of skills and ways of thinking. We thrive by the collective activity of people supplying their individual talents. Without such diversity, a culture dies."
132
"You must understand the following: In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it. Your interest must transcend the field itself and border on the religious."
133
"A false path in life is generally something we are attracted to for the wrong reasons- money, fame, attention, and so on. If it is attention we need, we often experience a kind of emptiness inside that we are hoping to fill with the false love of public approval."
134
"..it is essential that you begin with one skill that you can master, and that serves as a foundation for acquiring others. You must avoid at all cost the idea that you can manage learning several skills at a time. You need to develop your powers of concentration, and understand that trying to multi-task will be the death of the process."
136
"..the initial stages of learning a skill invariably involve tedium. Yet rather than avoiding this inevitable tedium, you must accept and embrace it. The pain and boredom we experience in the initial stage of learning a skill toughens our minds, much like physical exercise."
137
"Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life, which makes them constantly search for distractions and short-circuits the learning process. The pain is a kind of challenge your mind presents- will you lean how to focus and move past the boredom, or like a child will you succumb to the need for immediate pleasure and distraction?"
138
"..you must meet any boredom head-on and not try to avoid or repress it. Throughout your life you will encounter tedious situations, and you must cultivate the ability to handle them with discipline."
139
"The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways."
153
"There is nothing more intoxicating than victory, and nothing more dangerous."
154
"Understand: people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself – your worth, your abilities, your potential. They will often disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose – they want to keep you down."
155
"When our emotions are engaged, we often have trouble seeing things as they are."
156
"Boldness and hesitation elicit very different psychological responses in their targets: Hesitation puts obstacles in your path, boldness eliminates them."
157
"For each weakness there is a corresponding strength."
158
"Genuinely innocent people may still be playing for power, and are often horribly effective at the game, since they are not hindered by reflection. Once again, those who make a show or display of innocence are the least innocent of all."
159