I'm Storing Wisdom in My Commonplace Book

Some time ago I stumbled upon a great article by Ryan Holiday: How and Why to Keep a Commonplace book. By the way, if you don't know Ryan Holiday, check out his writing. I have Ego Is The Enemy and The Obstacle Is The Way on my to-read list.

Here's how he describes a Commonplace book:

A commonplace book is a central resource or depository for ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations and information you come across during your life and didactic pursuits. The purpose of the book is to record and organize these gems for later use in your life, in your business, in your writing, speaking or whatever it is that you do.

I found the idea of storing pieces of wisdom in the same place really compelling. A place where you can come back for inspiration or knowledge from a great variety of sources.

Instead of using a traditional notebook to store them (or a box as Ryan uses), I'm going to start storing them here. I'm not sure about the format or way of organizing them, we'll see.

Although I do this for myself, a partially unintended consequence is that they're here for anyone to see, so enjoy yourself :) Note that having a quote doesn't mean that I agree with it. I just find it interesting, inspiring, or just worth remembering.

If you have a favorite quote, let me know in the comments.

First one:

"You are something the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something the whole ocean is doing."
- Alan Watts

Photo by Mourad Saadi