Top 300 Tim Ferriss Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “Ben Franklin’s excellent advice: “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.”

— Tim Ferriss

202. “It is predicated on the assumption that you dislike what you are doing during the most physically capable years of your life. This is a nonstarter – nothing can justify that sacrifice.”

— Tim Ferriss

203. “Losers react, leaders anticipate.”

— Tim Ferriss

204. “For a long time, I’ve known that the key to getting started down the path of being remarkable in anything is to simply act with the intention of being remarkable.”

— Tim Ferriss

205. “Reality is negotiable. Outside of science and law, all rules can be bent or broken, and it doesn’t require being unethical.”

— Tim Ferriss

206. “You always have three options. You can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it. What is not a good option is to sit around wishing you would change it but not changing it, wishing you would leave it but not leaving it, and not accepting it. It’s that struggle, that aversion, that is responsible for most of our misery. The phrase that I probably use the most to myself in my head is just one word: accept.”

— Tim Ferriss

207. “What we really need to do, to design, is look at the extremes. The weakest, or the person with arthritis, or the athlete, or the strongest, the fastest person, because if we understand what the extremes are, the middle will take care of itself.” In other words, the extremes inform the mean, but not vice versa.”

— Tim Ferriss

208. “What you do is more important than how you do everything else, and doing something well does not make it important.”

— Tim Ferriss

209. “The disease of our times is that we live on the surface. We’re like the Platte River, a mile wide and an inch deep. I always say, “If you want to become a billionaire, invent something that will allow people to indulge their own Resistance.” Somebody did invent it. It’s called the Internet. Social media. That wonderland where we can flit from one superficial, jerkoff distraction to another, always remaining on the surface, never.”

— Tim Ferriss

210. “How has being “realistic” or “responsible” kept you from the life you want? 2. How has doing what you “should” resulted in subpar experiences or regret for not having done something else? 3. Look at what you’re currently doing and ask yourself, “What would happen if I did the opposite of.”

— Tim Ferriss

211. “These individuals have riches just as we say that we ‘have a fever,’ when really the fever has us.” –Seneca Roman Stoic philosopher, famed playwright.”

— Tim Ferriss

212. “If you can’t define it or act upon it, forget it.”

— Tim Ferriss

213. “People say that what we are seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think this is what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive. – JOSEPH CAMPBELL, The Power of Myth.”

— Tim Ferriss

214. “It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor.”

— Tim Ferriss

215. “I’ll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead: What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”

— Tim Ferriss

216. “If the best in the world are stretching their asses off in order to get strong, why aren’t you?”

— Tim Ferriss

217. “In the world of ideas, to name something is to own it. If you can name an issue, you can own the issue.” – Thomas L. Friedman.”

— Tim Ferriss

218. “Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined. Otherwise, you waste someone else’s time instead of your own, which now wastes your hard-earned cash. How’s that for incentive to be effective and efficient?”

— Tim Ferriss

219. “Pure hell forces action, but anything less can be endured with enough clever rationalization.”

— Tim Ferriss

220. “What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise? If you put ten people in a room and they have to choose an ice cream flavor, they’re gonna arrive at vanilla. There is always constant pressure to conform. But originality only happens on the edges of reality. And working on that line is always dangerous because it’s only a short step to disconnected insanity. So resist temptations and advice to play to the middle. The best work always comes from pushing the edge.”

— Tim Ferriss

221. “Exact numbers aren’t needed to realize that we spend too much time with those who poison us with pessimism, sloth, and low expectations of themselves and the world. It is often the case that you have to fire certain friends or retire from particular social circles to have the life you want. This isn’t being mean; it is being practical. Poisonous people do not deserve your time. To think otherwise is masochistic.”

— Tim Ferriss

222. “One wrong person in your circle can destroy your whole future.”

— Tim Ferriss

223. “In the end, winning is sleeping better.” – Jodie Foster.”

— Tim Ferriss

224. “Happiness can be bought with a bottle of wine and has become ambiguous through overuse.”

— Tim Ferriss

225. “Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas. – PAULA POUNDSTONE.”

— Tim Ferriss

226. “Doing less meaningless work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness. This is hard for most to accept, because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity.”

— Tim Ferriss

227. “In cooking – as in business and war – hope for the best but plan for the worst.”

— Tim Ferriss

228. “Fighting emotions is like flailing in quicksand – it only makes things worse. Sometimes, the most proactive “defense” is a mental nod and wink.”

— Tim Ferriss

229. “To “fix” someone’s problem, you very often just need to empathically listen to them. Even.”

— Tim Ferriss

230. “Before spending time on a stress-inducing question or problem, consider this: If you can’t define it or act upon it, forget it.”

— Tim Ferriss

231. “I believe that the key to self-sufficiency is breaking free of the mindset that someone, somewhere, owes you something or will come to your rescue.”

— Tim Ferriss

232. “Though you can upgrade your brain domestically, traveling and relocating provides unique conditions that make progress much faster. The different surroundings act as a counterpoint and mirror for your own prejudices, making weaknesses that much easier to fix. I.”

— Tim Ferriss

233. “18. Notice how I take “you” out of the sentence to avoid finger-pointing, even though it’s implicit. “Normally, you make priorities clear” sounds like a backhanded insult. If this is a significant other, you can skip this formality, but never use “you always do X,” which is just a fight starter.”

— Tim Ferriss

234. “People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don’t realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world. – CALVIN, from Calvin and Hobbes.”

— Tim Ferriss

235. “Our point is, if you try to approach every problem with your moral compass, first and foremost, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes. You’re going to exclude a lot of possible good solutions. You’re going to assume you know a lot of things, when in fact you don’t, and you’re not going to be a good partner in reaching a solution with other people who don’t happen to see the world the way you do.”

— Tim Ferriss

236. “I used to resent obstacles along the path, thinking, “If only that hadn’t happened life would be so good.” Then I suddenly realized, life is the obstacles. There is no underlying path. Our role here is to get better at navigating those obstacles. I strive to find calm, measured responses and to see hindrances as a chance to problem-solve.”

— Tim Ferriss

237. “Civilization had too many rules for me, so I did my best to rewrite them. – BILL COSBY.”

— Tim Ferriss

238. “The great majority of that which gives you angst never happens, so you must evict it. Don’t let it live rent-free in your brain.”

— Tim Ferriss

239. “Alternating periods of activity and rest is necessary to survive, let alone thrive. Capacity, interest, and mental endurance all wax and wane. Plan accordingly.”

— Tim Ferriss

240. “Relative income uses two variables: the dollar and time, usually hours.”

— Tim Ferriss

241. “Researchers use alloxan in lab rats to induce diabetes. That’s right – it’s used to produce diabetes. This is bad news if you eat anything white or “enriched.”

— Tim Ferriss

242. “The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. – VIKTOR FRANKL, Auschwitz survivor and founder of Logotherapy, Man’s Search for Meaning.”

— Tim Ferriss

243. “But not having cable or the Internet turns out to be cheaper than having them. And nature is still technically free, even if human beings have tried to make access to it expensive. Time and quiet should not be luxury items.”

— Tim Ferriss

244. “When you’re thinking of how to make your business bigger, it’s tempting to try to think all the big thoughts, the world-changing, massive-action plans. But please know that it’s often the tiny details that really thrill someone enough to make them tell all their friends about you.”

— Tim Ferriss

245. “The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. There will be a wide margin for relaxation to his day. He is only earnest to secure the kernels of time, and does not exaggerate the value of the husk.’ Think.”

— Tim Ferriss

246. “Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel. If the potential payoff is mediocre or average, so is your effort.”

— Tim Ferriss

247. “Simon received the Nobel Prize in 1978 for his contribution to organizational decision making: It is impossible to have perfect and complete information at any given time to make a decision.”

— Tim Ferriss

248. “Lose an hour in the morning, chase it all day.” – a Yiddish saying, author unknown.”

— Tim Ferriss

249. “Out of clutter, find simplicity. – Albert Einstein.”

— Tim Ferriss

250. “Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all. When people suggest you follow your “passion” or your “bliss,” I propose that they are, in fact, referring to the same singular concept: excitement. This brings us full circle. The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?”

— Tim Ferriss