Super Quotes #30 — Niccolò Machiavelli, Epicurus, Albert Camus
You don't need luck, the confidence of a friend, and how to find happiness and meaning.
"He who has relied least on fortune is established the strongest."
— Niccolò Machiavelli
Most lottery winners end up broke shortly after winning. More generally, successes gained by luck are weak and easily lost because the skills needed to keep them haven’t been established.
It’s a good thing to go through challenges when trying to achieve your goals. They harden you and teach you the skills necessary to maintain your success once you achieve it.
“It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.”
— Epicurus
You don’t need to solve your friend’s problem to help them. Often times, just the fact that you are willing to help gives them a huge confidence boost, driving them to accomplish their goal themselves.
If you love someone, help where you can, but more importantly give them your full confidence and let them see it. It means the world to them.
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
― Albert Camus
Searching for happiness in life is the surest way to not find it. It puts you in a state of constant thinking, overanalysing, and stress.
The easiest way to find happiness in life is to just live. Stop thinking about everything and just live. Follow your gut and do what makes you naturally feel deep, intrinsic goodness.
This should of course be done within reason as to not abuse modes of pleasure or to act foolishly. But the idea is to live as freely as possible, to be one with nature and life, as long as it doesn’t hurt you in the long-term.