“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

When you read good, coherent actions, you think, “This is going to be uncomfortable, but I think it can work.” When you read bad ones, you think, “Ah, we got afraid of the consequences, and we aren’t really changing anything.”

— Will Larson, An Elegant Puzzle

…belief is easier than disbelief; we believe instinctively, but disbelief requires a conscious effort.

— Eliezer Yudkowsky, Map and Territory