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Quote by Ryan Holiday

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Stillness Is the Key

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Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday (born June 16, 1987) is an American author, marketer, and advocate of Stoicism. He is best known for his books such as 'The Obstacle Is the Way' and 'The Daily Stoic,' which apply ancient philosophy to modern life. Holiday served as the director of marketing for American Apparel and has written for Forbes, Fast Company, and The New York Observer. His works have sold over 4 million copies worldwide and been translated into 30 languages. Through his books, podcast, and speaking engagements, Holiday promotes Stoic principles to help people navigate adversity, stress, and uncertainty. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family. more

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“Think of a wave: it washes onto the shore, and then it rolls back. Likewise, each of your activities has a backside of stillness. To be with people, you must be alone. To listen, you need silence. To exercise, you need rest. You do not need to inflict rest, silence, or aloneness. You can simply surrender to your existing urges for these essential actions.”

“I could not now say when I first grew to love the wild, only that I did, and that a need for it will always remain strong in me. As a child, whenever I read the word, it conjured images of wide spaces, remote and figureless. Isolated islands off Atlantic coasts. Unbounded forests, and blue snow-light falling on to drifts marked with the paw-prints of wolves. Frost-shattered summits and corries holding lochs of great depth. And this was the vision of a wild place that had stayed with me: somewhere boreal, wintry, vast, isolated, elemental, demanding of the traveller in its asperities. To reach a wild place was, for me, to step outside human history.”