Joy is only for those whose life accords with the given Order of the world.

— Aldous Huxley, Ape and Essence

It’s not wrong to make a list of things that you need to do, and then start doing those things. What’s unrealistic is believing that the list is right no matter what new information arises as you move through its action items. What’s wrong is viewing that list as your work, disconnected from a higher outcome. Countless studies have shown that when people are connected to a higher purpose, they do better work. They’re more motivated. They’re happier.

— Janice Fraser, Jason Fraser, and Eric Ries, Farther, Faster, and Far Less Drama

“But is there not a pleasure,” said Candide, “in criticising everything, in pointing out faults where others see nothing but beauties?”

— Voltaire, Candide

“The routines of almost all famous writers, from Charles Darwin to John Grisham, similarly emphasise specific starting times, or number of hours worked, or words written. Such rituals provide a structure to work in, whether or not the feeling of motivation or inspiration happens to be present. They let people work alongside negative or positive emotions, instead of getting distracted by the effort of cultivating only positive ones. ‘Inspiration is for amateurs,’ the artist Chuck Close once memorably observed. ‘The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

— Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote

In short, people who believe that success depends only on talent and effort and have an exaggerated sense of how talented they are may find it easier to muster the kinds of effort necessary for success. If so, those false beliefs may be perversely adaptive.

— Robert H. Frank, Success and Luck