Tim Ferriss is the author of five New York Times best-selling books including The 4-Hour Workweek and Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons and World-Class Performers. The serial entrepreneur and author hosts a hugely popular podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, and works as an active investor and advisor to tech companies including Uber and Facebook. Needless to say, there’s a lot to learn from this ambitious powerhouse. We’ve compiled some of Ferriss’s most impactful quotes that just might inspire your next big move.

Quotes from Tools of Titans

• “Creativity is an infinite resource. The more you spend, the more you have.”

• “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.”

• “Happiness is wanting what you have.”

• “The superheroes you have in your mind (idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc.) are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized 1 or 2 strengths.”

• “When I wake up in the morning, I’m thinking to myself: What can I do to be ready for that moment, which is coming? That propels me out of bed.”

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

• "Give vulnerability a shot. Give discomfort its due. Because I think he or she who is willing to be the most uncomfortable is not only the bravest, but rises the fastest."

• “Think of problems as gold mines. The world’s biggest problems are the world’s biggest business opportunities.”

• "Weirdness is why we adore our friends... Weirdness is what bonds us to our colleagues. Weirdness is what sets us apart, gets us hired. Be your unapologetically weird self. In fact, being weird may even find you the ultimate happiness.”

• “Love yourself... You’ve got to love yourself before you can love others. Without it, nothing productive is going to happen, and we can all bang our heads on the wall.”

• "The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion."

• "Losers have goals. Winners have systems."

• "When 99% of people doubt you, you're either gravely wrong or about to make history."

• "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."

• "If you ran into an asshole in the morning you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole."

• "If you let your learning lead to knowledge, you become a fool. If you let your learning lead to action, you become wealthy."

• "Investing in yourself is the most important investment you'll ever make in your life.... There's no financial investment that'll ever match it, because if you develop more skill, more ability, more insight, more capacity, that's what's going to really provide economic freedom."

• "I wish I would have known that there was no need to wait."
  

Quotes from The 4-Hour Workweek 

• "What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”

• “People will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”

• “Focus on being productive instead of busy.”

• “To enjoy life, you don't need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren't as serious as you make them out to be.”

• “'Someday' is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.”

• “Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.”

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

• "Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitant to get in the way if you're moving.”

• “It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. The choice is between multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will, at best, become mediocre. Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair.”

• "Tomorrow becomes never. No matter how small the task, take the first step now!”

• "Learn to be difficult when it counts. In school as in life, having a reputation for being assertive will help you receive preferential treatment without having to beg or fight for it every time."

• "The question you should be asking isn't, 'What do I want?' or 'What are my goals?' but 'What would excite me?'"

• "It's lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for 'realistic' goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming."

• "But you are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn't making you stronger, they're making you weaker."

• "If I want a better-than-average career, I can't simply 'go with the flow' and get it. Most people do just that: they wish for an outcome but make no intention-driven actions toward that outcome. If they would just do something most people would find that they get some version of the outcome they're looking for. That's been my secret. Stop wishing and start doing."

• "Remember: it is impossible to evaluate, or even understand, anything that you cannot measure."

• "Seeing progress in changing numbers makes the repetitive fascinating and creates a positive feedback loop."

• "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."

Quotes from Tribe of Mentors

• "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."

• "Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask. After all, conscious thinking is largely asking and answering questions in your own head. If you want confusion and heartache, ask vague questions. If you want uncommon clarity and results, ask uncommonly clear questions."

• "Don't do things that you know are morally wrong. Not because someone is watching, but because you are. Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You'll always know."

• "Success can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations we are willing to have, and by the number of uncomfortable actions we are willing to take."

• "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."

• "Losing makes you think in ways victories can't. You begin asking questions instead of feeling like you have the answers. Questions open up the doors to so many possibilities."