Top 300 Tim Ferriss Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “80% of the results come from 20% of the effort and time.”

— Tim Ferriss

102. “Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective – doing less – is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.”

— Tim Ferriss

103. “There is just less competition for bigger goals.”

— Tim Ferriss

104. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu.”

— Tim Ferriss

105. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ You won’t believe what you can accomplish by attempting the impossible with the courage to repeatedly fail better.”

— Tim Ferriss

106. “You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

— Tim Ferriss

107. “If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito.” – Betty Reese.”

— Tim Ferriss

108. “We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” – Archilochus.”

— Tim Ferriss

109. “Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.”

— Tim Ferriss

110. “Busy is a decision.” Here’s why: Of the many, many excuses people use to rationalize why they can’t do something, the excuse “I am too busy” is not only the most inauthentic, it is also the laziest. I don’t believe in “too busy.” Like I said, busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is shorthand for “not important enough.”

— Tim Ferriss

111. “Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”

— Tim Ferriss

112. “Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask.”

— Tim Ferriss

113. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” –Marcus Aurelius.”

— Tim Ferriss

114. “You’re not responsible for the hand of cards you were dealt. You’re responsible for maxing out what you were given.”

— Tim Ferriss

115. “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” – Albert Einstein.”

— Tim Ferriss

116. “The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a choice that you make and a skill that you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles.”

— Tim Ferriss

117. “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. – ALBERT EINSTEIN.”

— Tim Ferriss

118. “Happiness is a choice you make and a skill you develop.”

— Tim Ferriss

119. “Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. The heroes in this book are no different. Everyone struggles. Take solace in that.”

— Tim Ferriss

120. “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.” – Thomas Edison.”

— Tim Ferriss

121. “Doing less meaningless work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness.”

— Tim Ferriss

122. “One of the most universal causes of self-doubt and depression: trying to impress people you don’t like. Stressing to impress is fine, but do it for the right people – those you want to emulate.”

— Tim Ferriss

123. “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

— Tim Ferriss

124. “If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. – CHINESE PROVERB.”

— Tim Ferriss

125. “If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.”

— Tim Ferriss

126. “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” – Epictetus.”

— Tim Ferriss

127. “The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.”

— Tim Ferriss

128. “Never let a good crisis go to waste. It’s the universe challenging you to learn something new and rise to the next level of your potential.”

— Tim Ferriss

129. “Don’t confuse the complex with the difficult. Most situations are simple – many are just emotionally difficult to act upon.”

— Tim Ferriss

130. “What would this look like if it were easy? “This” could be anything. That morning, it was answering a laundry list of big questions. What would this look like if it were easy? is such a lovely and deceptively leveraged question. It’s easy to convince yourself that things need to be hard, that if you’re not redlining, you’re not trying hard enough. This leads us to look for paths of most resistance, often creating unnecessary hardship in the process.”

— Tim Ferriss

131. “Named must your fear be before banish it you can. – YODA, from Star Wars:.”

— Tim Ferriss

132. “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” –Steve Jobs.”

— Tim Ferriss

133. “When You Complain, Nobody Wants to Help You.”

— Tim Ferriss

134. “My goal is to learn things once and use them forever.”

— Tim Ferriss

135. “If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?”

— Tim Ferriss

136. “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.”

— Tim Ferriss

137. “Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask. After all, conscious thinking is largely asking and answering questions in your own head.”

— Tim Ferriss

138. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I.”

— Tim Ferriss

139. “The Tail End” by Tim Urban on the Wait But Why blog – if you only read one article this month, make it that one. It.”

— Tim Ferriss

140. “Learn to slow down. Get lost intentionally. Observe how you judge both yourself and those around you.”

— Tim Ferriss

141. “Make your peace with the fact that saying ‘no’ often requires trading popularity for respect.” – Greg McKeown, Essentialism.”

— Tim Ferriss

142. “If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.”

— Tim Ferriss

143. “Ours is a culture where we wear our ability to get by on very little sleep as a kind of badge of honor that symbolizes work ethic, or toughness, or some other virtue – but really, it’s a total profound failure of priorities and of self-respect.”

— Tim Ferriss

144. “It’s always the hard part that creates value.”

— Tim Ferriss

145. “I believe that success can be measured in the number of uncomfortable conversations you’re willing to have.”

— Tim Ferriss

146. “Borrow liberally, combine uniquely, and create your own bespoke blueprint.”

— Tim Ferriss

147. “Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective – doing less – is the path of the productive.”

— Tim Ferriss

148. “Too much, too many, and too often of what you want becomes what you don’t want.”

— Tim Ferriss

149. “Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You’ll always know.”

— Tim Ferriss

150. “Remember – boredom is the enemy, not some abstract “failure.”

— Tim Ferriss