“The fruit of addiction to success is redefining yourself in terms of one activity. When you take that away, there's a deep loss of identity. To the striver, that addiction is success. It activates the same neurobiology and dopamine pathways as alcohol or drugs.”
— Arthur C. Brooks
Social Scientist & Author on Happiness, Meaning, and Conservative Values

The quote archive

Philosophy

A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.

Every business makes money as a secondary purpose. It's the coincidental result of creating customer value and changing the world in some way that people are willing to pay for and find valuable. That is the primary activity of a business – and you happen to get paid for it.

— Mike Evans

NFL Wide Receiver for Tampa Bay Buccaneers & Super Bowl Champion

All we can control in this life is our dedication, our self-belief, our determination. I can guarantee you, I will always have that, and that's my legacy. That's what I want to leave as a gift to my kids – the message that they should never give up, never have regrets, to give everything, never back down in front of obstacles, and to always keep going, no matter what.

— Francis Ngannou

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion & Mixed Martial Arts Pioneer

I don't want my success to define me. I want people to see me without all that – success comes and goes, without it, I am still who I am.

— Francis Ngannou

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion & Mixed Martial Arts Pioneer

The reason why I fight is that I'm fighting against the pain of seeing my family get sick and fighting against not being able to help them. That's more painful than anything. To see my kids, get sick tomorrow and not being able to help them? That's more painful than anything I would experience in a fight.

— Francis Ngannou

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion & Mixed Martial Arts Pioneer

Only one second in time you can find peace – now. There's only one second you can be happy – now. There's only one place you can find peace and happiness. Where you are. This is it, it's not out there somewhere, it's in you.

— Marshall Goldsmith

World's Most Cited Executive Coach & Leadership Development Expert

You should never place your value as a human being on results. You don't control the results of the game – people get lucky or go bankrupt. Also, what happens when you achieve your result? What long-term satisfaction does that bring you?

— Marshall Goldsmith

World's Most Cited Executive Coach & Leadership Development Expert

One of the greatest myths in the lives of the people I coach is, 'I will be happy when…' as if there is some place to go to. There's only one book that ends with the phrase happily ever after, that's a fairy-tale.

— Marshall Goldsmith

World's Most Cited Executive Coach & Leadership Development Expert

Work is not the be-all and end-all for me. It never has been. My family is the most important thing to me, and I talk a lot about that to my employees. It actually makes you a better employee if you have your balance right between work, family, passions, studies, all those things.

— Christopher Payne

My wife quipped that we're all going to die and it just happened to be her turn. Her pragmatic and humorous attitude was a guide as to how to accept what is unchangeable and inevitable.

— Richard E. Grant

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Built into her edict, is not to feel any guilt if you find happiness or joy after her death. That is an extraordinarily generous piece of advice.

— Richard E. Grant

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Four days before she died, she challenged my daughter and I to try and find a pocketful of happiness in each day, which has become the mantra by which we navigate the abyss of grief, following her death. I don't think you ever get over grief, you just have to find a way to accommodate and travel around it.

— Richard E. Grant

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I began a conversation with my future wife in January 1983 and 38 years later, that conversation ended when she drew her last breath at 7.30 in the evening on the 2nd of September 2021. To be truly and completely seen, understood and loved by another Human Being, was her greatest gift to me.

— Richard E. Grant

British actor known for Withnail and I and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

If you know something, and if the reason you're confident is that I told you that thing? That means I wasn't a good educator at that moment because you decided that based on some authority figure, something is real, or true. Instead, an educator should teach you how to think about a problem – how to come to some form of understanding.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Renowned Astrophysicist & Director of Hayden Planetarium

Be ashamed to die unless you have won some victory for humanity. Nobody should make the world worse off for their having lived in it. Everyone has the obligation to add their brick to the edifice of civilisation, and whether that brick is big or small, it means you have contributed to building- not destroying.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Renowned Astrophysicist & Director of Hayden Planetarium

It has been said that we went to the moon to explore the moon, but while we were there, we looked over our shoulder and discovered Earth. Seeing the Earth in that perspective upgraded the firmware of all our brains, of everyone's subconscious. Those missions sparked Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency, a comprehensive Clean Air Act... So much activism came from seeing that there's no hint of anyone coming to help us from somewhere, that we're here by ourselves on one planet.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Renowned Astrophysicist & Director of Hayden Planetarium

The fact that you and I are alive is against stupendous odds. One day we will die, and that's sad, but there are people who will never die because they were never born. We're the lucky ones, we get to die. You can only die if you were alive.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Renowned Astrophysicist & Director of Hayden Planetarium