“The journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step.”
Lao Tzu, c. 400 BC · Chinese sage, traditional author of the Tao Te Ching
Chapter 2
On the Courage to Start
“Come now, have courage to be wise: begin: You're halfway over when you once plunge in.”
Horace, c. 20 BC · Roman poet, writing to young Lollius
“Our lack of confidence is not the result of difficulty. The difficulty comes from our lack of confidence.”
Seneca, c. 65 AD · Roman Stoic, letters to Lucilius
“How long will you still wait to think yourself worthy of the best things? You are no longer a lad, but already a full-grown man.”
Epictetus, c. 125 AD · Greek Stoic, born into slavery
“He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.”
Qoheleth, c. 250 BC · the Preacher of Ecclesiastes
“All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which they were small.”
Lao Tzu, c. 400 BC · Chinese sage, traditional author of the Tao Te Ching
“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.”
Solomon, c. 700 BC · traditional author of the book of Proverbs
“Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.”
The Book of Joshua, c. 600 BC · the charge given to Joshua at the crossing
“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.”
Frederick Douglass, 1857 · born enslaved, orator and abolitionist
“Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.”
Amelia Earhart, 1928 · American aviator, written before her Atlantic crossing
Regret over something you did stings hardest at first and fades. Regret over something you never tried grows heavier with every passing year.
Gilovich and Medvec, 1994 · surveys and interviews on the shape of regret over time
Asked what they most regretted, people in their eighties and nineties named the same thing again and again: the hours they lost to worrying about the future.
Cornell Legacy Project, 2012 · over 1,200 people aged 70 to 108 interviewed across ten years
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