Josh Waitzkin Quotes

#1. GWGs [girls with glasses] aren't happy being nomads; they need a safe place to put their glasses while they sleep.

Marissa Walsh

#2. I could play in front of thousands of people, but the instant cameras got within ten feet of me, I just shut down. I was like the Ricky Bobby of the WPL.

Mariana Zapata

#3. The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.

Josh Waitzkin

#4. To walk a thorny road, we may cover its every inch with leather or we can make sandals. Anger.

Josh Waitzkin

#5. So, I'm lying on the couch and Laura walks in and I say, 'Free at last,' and she says 'You're free all right, you're free to do the dishes.' So I say, 'You're talking to the former president, baby,' and she said, 'consider this your new domestic policy agenda.'

George W. Bush

#6. Make the main objective of the enemy difficult and they will lose the will to fight.

Amish Tripathi

#7. He landed on cheap shot, but I knocked him out of the tournament.

Josh Waitzkin

#8. What first stuns the young writer emerging from college is that there is no clear-cut road for him to travel on. He must chop a path in the wilderness of his own soul, a disheartening process, lifelong and lonesome and therefore, of what use graduate work?

Brad Gooch

#9. Poverty with happiness is not a real poverty; richness with unhappiness is not a real richness!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

#10. A key component of high-level learning is cultivating a resilient awareness that is the older, conscious embodiment of a child's playful obliviousness.

Josh Waitzkin

#11. In the end, mastery involves discovering the most resonant information and integrating it so deeply and fully it disappears and allows us to fly free.

Josh Waitzkin

#12. One of the most critical strengths of a superior competitor in any discipline - whether we are speaking about sports, business negotiations, or even presidential debates - is the ability to dictate the tone of the battle.

Josh Waitzkin

#13. No matter what they tell you, no matter what they do, no matter what they teach you, what you believe is true.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

#14. One idea I taught was the importance of regaining presence and clarity of mind after making a serious error.

Josh Waitzkin

#15. In my experience, successful people shoot for the stars, put their hearts on the line in every battle, and ultimately discover that the lessons learned from the pursuit of excellence mean much more than the immediate trophies and glory.

Josh Waitzkin

#16. Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.

Josh Waitzkin

#17. I was unhindered by internal conflict - a state of being that I have come to see as fundamental to the learning process.

Josh Waitzkin

#18. The human mind defines things in relation to one another - without light the notion of darkness would be unintelligible

Josh Waitzkin

#19. If you try and fail, make another effort, and
still another ... until you succeed.

Napoleon Hill

#20. When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it.

Josh Waitzkin

#21. The learning principle is to plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick. Our obstacle is that we live in an attention-deficit culture.

Josh Waitzkin

#22. Of course there were plateaus, periods when my results leveled off while I internalized the information necessary for my next growth spurt, but I didn't mind.

Josh Waitzkin

#23. Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol and an audience is electrified.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

#24. I realized that even if we went on talking till Judgment Day, I would still find the time all too short.

Simone De Beauvoir

#25. Friendship is the heaven of life.

Thomas A. Edison

#26. Each loss was a lesson, each win a thrill. Every day pieces of the puzzle fell together. Whenever

Josh Waitzkin

#27. When you are in love, you have to be ready to suffer and find out the meaning of love.

Debasish Mridha

#28. But as with all skills, the most sophisticated techniques tend to have their foundation in the simplest of principles. As

Josh Waitzkin

#29. Everyone at a high level has a huge amount of chess understanding, and much of what separates the great from the very good is deep presence, relaxation of the conscious mind, which allows the unconscious to flow unhindered.

Josh Waitzkin

#30. What did it feel like to die? Was it a peaceful sleep? Some thought it was full of either trumpet-blowing angels or angry devils. Perhaps I was already dead.

Laurie Halse Anderson

#31. Seductive pull of the forest, an open canvas for trouble.

Karsten Knight

#32. In chess you might find a good move. Then you might find a better move. But take your time. Find the best move.

Josh Waitzkin