Ryan Holiday quotes

Ryan Holiday is a bestselling author and media strategist known for his books on Stoicism and marketing. With a background working for prominent figures like Tucker Max and Robert Greene, Holiday has become a sought-after expert in the fields of self-improvement and business strategy. His insightful writings have been featured in major publications like The New York Times and Forbes. Learn from Holiday's wisdom by reading his books like "The Obstacle Is the Way" and "Ego Is the Enemy." Take your career to the next level with Ryan Holiday's practical advice and timeless philosophies.

The reason the knives are so sharp online is because the pie is so small.

- Ryan Holiday

Don't let your progress become pride.

- Ryan Holiday

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.

- Ryan Holiday

When intelligent people read, they ask themselves a simple question: What do I plan to do with this information?

- Ryan Holiday

What is known can't jerk us around unwittingly. Before anything can be resolved, the implicit must be made into the explicit.

- Ryan Holiday

Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.

- Ryan Holiday

A degree on a wall means you're educated as much as shoes on your feet mean you're walking.

- Ryan Holiday

Remember, there’s no greatness in the future. Or clarity. Or insight. Or happiness. Or peace. There is only this moment.

- Ryan Holiday

It takes real work to grasp what is invisible to just about everyone else.

- Ryan Holiday

Be present. And if you’ve had trouble with this in the past? That’s okay. That’s the nice thing about the present. It keeps showing up to give you a second chance.

- Ryan Holiday

Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of — that’s the metric to measure yourself against. Your standards are. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.

- Ryan Holiday

You’re not as good as you think. You don’t have it all figured out. Stay focused. Do better.

- Ryan Holiday

Work is finding yourself alone at the track when the weather kept everyone else indoors. Work is pushing through the pain and crappy first drafts and prototypes. It is ignoring whatever plaudits others are getting, and more importantly, ignoring whatever plaudits you may be getting. Because there is work to be done. Work doesn’t want to be good. It is made so, despite the headwind.

- Ryan Holiday

Those who have subdued their ego understand that it doesn’t degrade you when others treat you poorly; it degrades them.

- Ryan Holiday

The pretense of knowledge is our most dangerous vice, because it prevents us from getting any better.

- Ryan Holiday

That’s what is so insidious about talk. Anyone can talk about himself or herself. Even a child knows how to gossip and chatter. Most people are decent at hype and sales. So what is scarce and rare? Silence. The ability to deliberately keep yourself out of the conversation and subsist without its validation. Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong.

- Ryan Holiday

Most successful people are people you’ve never heard of. They want it that way. It keeps them sober. It helps them do their jobs.

- Ryan Holiday

Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.

- Ryan Holiday

Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work. It means you’re the least important person in the room — until you change that with results.

- Ryan Holiday

You just learn to stop thinking about what they think. You’ll never do original work if you can’t.

- Ryan Holiday

Today, each of us receives our own call. To service. To take a risk. To challenge the status quo. To run toward while others run away. To rise above our station. To do what people say is impossible.

- Ryan Holiday

There is nothing worth doing that is not scary. There is no one who has achieved greatness without wrestling with their own doubts, anxieties, limitations, and demons.

- Ryan Holiday

The belief that an individual can make a difference is the first step. The next is understanding that you can be that person.

- Ryan Holiday

It has been said that a Stoic is someone who says 'Fuck you' to fate. That’s right. They resist. They fight. They will not be made to do the wrong thing. Especially under pressure.

- Ryan Holiday

It doesn’t matter who or how many come at you, you have to be you. Confidently. Authentically. Bravely.

- Ryan Holiday

Don’t worry about whether things will be hard. Because they will be. Instead, focus on the fact that these things will help you. This is why you needn’t fear them.

- Ryan Holiday

Courage is honest commitment to noble ideals. The opposite of courage is not, as some argue, being afraid. It’s apathy. It’s disenchantment. It’s despair. It’s throwing up your hands and saying, What’s the point anyway?

- Ryan Holiday

You only control the effort, not the results.

- Ryan Holiday

We must be willing to roll the dice and lose. Prepare, at the end of the day, for none of it to work.

- Ryan Holiday

The world might call you a pessimist. Who cares? It’s far better to seem like a downer than to be blindsided or caught off guard.

- Ryan Holiday