30 Quotes From Philosophy That Will Help You Gain Perspective
March 15, 2018


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30 Quotes From Philosophy That Will Help You Gain Perspective

Quotes, man. I love them.

Excerpts, proverbs, quips, riddles, koans, aphorisms, limericks, snippets, and lyrics— I’m not the type to discriminate. I love them all.

In this week’s post, I’d like to share with you a few quotes that I think will benefit you. They deliver potent, pithy shots of clarity, insight, and/or motivation that can help you gain perspective, especially if times are tough.

Read, contemplate, and maybe note these, as if they were personal notes left to you by some of the greatest minds –past and present.

[Tweet “30 Quotes From Philosophy That Will Help You Gain Perspective”]

1.– “Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In trading: Basing your happiness on trade outcomes —events that are in themselves ever-changing— is self-imposed suffering. Let go. Trust the process, and let yourself enjoy unconditional happiness.

2. — “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.”

― Leo Tolstoy

In trading: Trade entries or exits are rarely going to be perfect. Make peace with that.

3.– “I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.”

― Rumi

In trading: Don’t let other’s opinions shake you out of your trades. Learn to trust your system/ your process/ your opinion.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

4.– “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

― Kahlil Gibran

In trading: Beginner’s luck often stifles growth. Losses and failure are good for you.

5.– “You could not step twice into the same river.”

― Heraclitus

In trading: Change is everywhere. Even in the market it is a constant. The market generates patterns and even though those patterns seem to repeat themselves with a certain degree of consistency, they’re never completely the same – they don’t share the same intensity, momentum, and duration.

6.– “Let everything happen to you; beauty and terror, just keep going. No feeling is final.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke

In trading: Following your plan should be viewed as an essential act, even though it’s a struggle most of the time. It’s so important to believe that it will be worth it in the end —rather than doubting and judging how it feels in each moment.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”

7.– “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”

― Alan W. Watts

In trading: Never be afraid of change or uncertainty. Embrace them by being as open/flexible/adaptable as possible.

8.– “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”

― Lao Tzu

In trading: Trading can be a ‘one-hit wonder’ thing, where you eventually land one trade that changes everything for you. But instead, I urge you to think of it as a lifelong journey. The psychological implications are very different.

9.– “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.”

― Margaret Mitchell

In trading: There are no guarantees in trading. The sooner you accept that, you sooner you can release your expectations and focus unconditionally on a proven process that’ll raise your probability of success.

Chuang Tzu

10.– “Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”

― Chuang Tzu

In trading: Do not bring emotional struggle into trading. Everything changes -outcomes, markets, circumstances, states of mind… There is nothing to cling to. Go with the flow. Trade in the moment.

11.– “You can feel an emotion; just don’t think that it’s so important.”

— John Cage

In trading: When you let your emotions come to the surface; when you embrace them, no matter their content or intensity, you transcend them. When you deny them and try to push them down, they afflict you even more.

12.– “The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.”

― Zen Proverb

In trading: Don’t bother showing to the world that you’re a good trader. Just act like one.

“You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise.”

13.– “You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise.”

― Michael Ende

In trading: In trading, whatever is going to happen will happen, whether you want it or not. Your job is not to react blindly… This game is all about strategic maneuvering.

14.– “Worry is preposterous; we don’t know enough to worry.”

— Wei Boyang

In trading: A simple way to prevent thoughts from turning into worrying (overthinking) is to trade while remaining open to all possibilities.

15.– “The longer I live, the more uninformed I feel. Only the young have an explanation for everything.”

― Isabel Allende

In trading: The more you stay in the game, the more you’ll realize that there are no real ‘pros’ in trading. We’re all just perpetual students of the market. But some losing traders think they have all the answers. They can’t learn because they’re busy telling everyone what they know and what to do.

Alexis de Tocqueville

16.– “Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville

In trading: Some people get into trading to escape the rat race, but then they feel the need to sit in front of their screen all day to watch the market. They think they have to trade all the time. It’s a big mistake.

17.– “It’s more difficult to rule yourself than to rule an entire city.”

― Jordan B Peterson

In trading: Trading can be easy. The real problem is the worrying, the expectations, delusions, the inability to let go… For those reasons, it’s not. That’s why working on your mindset day in and day out is the most important thing you can ever do if you want to stay in the game long enough to experience success.

18.– “Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.”

― Aldous Huxley

In trading: Humans are fallible and perfect consistency is virtually impossible. Even expert traders make mistakes from time to time. The only difference between them and the amateurs is that their mistakes aren’t deadly because money management is their number one priority. Expert traders also recognize early on that they’ve made a mistake and they are quick to correct their course of action without hesitation.

friedrich nietzsche

19.– “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

In trading: The herd mentality is a contagious phenomenon. To prevent it from sneaking up on you, it can be useful to train yourself to read, feel, and understand your emotions and urges.

20.– “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

In trading: Everything that happens is an opportunity for growth. Nothing is placed before you that you can’t handle. So spend no time on blame, bitterness, or feeling sorry for yourself, and you put everything towards learning and growth.

21.– “Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.”

― William S. Burroughs

In trading: You missed a trade? Frustration comes when we want things to be different from how they are. Why waste time in fantasies and what could have been? Why not just relax and wait for the next trade opportunity? There’ll always be one…

 “Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, that is your teacher.”

22.– “Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, that is your teacher.”

― Ajahn Chah

In trading: You must expect failure as part of your trading journey. Failure and success go hand in hand — you cannot have one without the other.

23.– “If you don’t have a strategy, you’re part of someone else’s strategy. ”

― Alvin Toffler

In trading: In this field, lots of fake traders are after your money. Make sure you learn from the right people. This is critical.

24.– “Disillusionment in living is finding that no one can really ever be agreeing with you completely in anything.”

― Gertrude Stein

In trading: You are only trading your opinion, which is a relative truth. Price is the absolute truth.

“I know there is no straight road; no straight road in this world, only a giant labyrinth of intersecting crossroads.”

25.– “I know there is no straight road; no straight road in this world, only a giant labyrinth of intersecting crossroads.”

― Federico Garcia Lorca

In trading: The path to market success is not a straight one. You will fall along the way. But losses and failures eventually get you wisdom. Without wisdom, durable market success is simply not possible. So learn to enjoy the journey.

26.– “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

― Blaise Pascal

In trading: Meditation helps you know yourself. You can’t trade well if you don’t know yourself.

27.– “We are our choices.”

― Jean-Paul Sartre

In trading: Take responsibility for your losses and work on bettering the quality of your decisions.

“Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself.”

28.– “Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself.”

― Jean-Paul Sartre

In trading: Don’t wait for trade ideas from others. Work on being completely self-reliant.

 29.– “Maybe it’s not about happy ending. Maybe it’s about the story.”

― Albert Camus

In trading: See trading as a kind of journey in which you will transform yourself, rather than a mere money-making endeavor.

30.– “Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?”

― Marcus Aurelius

In trading: In some sense, trading mastery is simply noticing your patterns of thought, emotions and behavior that are not skillful, and having the strength of mind to say “no… I’m not gonna do that.”

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