Sam Keen Quotes

You should never worry too much about achieving your goals, because in the long run you might not find yourself too happy when you get there.

Sometimes I'll think, 'That was a really nice day. I ate well, I exercised, I called some friends, wasn't working too hard,' but I rarely have one of those.

My morning runs have become one of the only times I have during the week to reflect and take stock.

To me, 'success' is happiness and my top tip for happiness would be to understand and learn to use perspective.

Do not push so fast ahead, do slow down a bit! Otherwise you won't catch up with yourselves.

Those who run after happiness will never be happy. Happiness is something that has to come to the fore from within.

Wisdom remembers. Happiness forgets.

It was time to expect more of myself. Yet as I thought about happiness, I kept running up against paradoxes. I wanted to change myself but accept myself. I wanted to take myself less seriously -- and also more seriously. I wanted to use my time well, but I also wanted to wander, to play, to read at whim. I wanted to think about myself so I could forget myself. I was always on the edge of agitation; I wanted to let go of envy and anxiety about the future, yet keep my energy and ambition.

You have to be really vigilant and appreciative of what you have and not get too excited about anything. But it's important to celebrate what you have and feel proud for a minute.

Build gaps in your life. Pauses. Proper pauses.

Seek happiness and you may or may not find it; seek grievances and you are guaranteed success.

Between the businesse of life and the day of death, a space ought to be interposed.

Men do not mirror themselves in running water; they mirror themselves in still water.

Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success.

Humor requires perspective. Perspective requires focus. Focus requires balance. Balance requires attention to the present moment. In the 'now' one is freed from labels. Success and failure, good luck and bad—they're all constructs of your mind.

Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing.... Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.

Thoughtfulness is the way to deathlessness, thoughtlessness the way to death. The thoughtful do not die: the thoughtless are as if dead already.

Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see.

It's okay to look back, just don't stare.

All human beings have an innate desire to overcome suffering, to find happiness. Training the mind to think differently, through meditation, is one important way to avoid suffering and be happy.

Happiness begins with impeccability of the word. The way to measure the impeccability of my word is to ask, "Am I happy or am I suffering?" If I'm suffering, then I'm not being impeccable with my word.

I think I've been fortunate enough to have a fairly long career and hopefully I'm at the middle of it now. And I think I'm starting to develop a certain amount of experience and a certain amount of wisdom about kind of what really matters and what doesn't matter.

In the end, we need two things to lead a balanced life - a sense of the world and a sense of ourselves; it's like breathing in and breathing out. And if you can only get to know the world by stepping out, and losing yourself in experience, you can only get to know the self by stepping back, and finding yourself in contemplation. One without the other leads to a kind of madness.

We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock.

Take time for all things.