Hector Garcia Quotes

essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Life is not a problem to be solved. Just remember to have something that keeps you busy doing what you love while being surrounded by the people who love you.

Walk slowly and you’ll go far.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow.

there is nothing wrong with enjoying life’s pleasures as long as they do not take control of your life as you enjoy them

He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. —Aristotle

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters.

There is no future, no past. There is only the present.

We have to learn to turn off the autopilot that’s steering us in an endless loop. We all know people who snack while talking on the phone or watching the news. You ask them if the omelet they just ate had onion in it, and they can’t tell you,

The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.

Getting back to Albert Einstein, “a happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell on the future.”4

We don't create our feelings; they simply come to us, and we have to accept them. The trick is, to welcome them.

We’re all going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die. Because you’re born to die.

Be led by your curiosity, and keep busy by doing things that fill you with meaning and happiness.

Stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Today is all you have. Make the most of it. Make it worth remembering.

Metabolism slows down 90 percent after 30 minutes of sitting.

There is a tension between what is good for someone and what they want to do. This is because people, especially older people, like to do things as they've always done them. The problem is that when the brain develops ingrained habits, it doesn't need to think anymore. Things get done very quickly and efficiently on automatic pilot, often in a very advantageous way. This creates a tendency to stick to routines, and the only way of breaking these is to confront the brain with new information.

simply interacting with others—playing a game, for example—offers new stimuli and helps prevent the depression that can come with solitude.

a happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell on the future.

It is much more important to have a compass pointing to a concrete objective than to have a map.

Presented with new information, the brain creates new connections and is revitalized. This is why it is so important to expose yourself to change, even if stepping outside your comfort zone means feeling a bit of anxiety.

I think she wanted nothing from me," Hector added, "nothing at all but to let her love me.

Spend no more than twenty minutes on Facebook per day

To be able to concentrate for a considerable amount of time is essential to difficult achievement

We don’t create the meaning of our life, as Sartre claimed—we discover it.

When confronted with a big goal, try to break it down into parts and then attack each part one by one.

to focus on a task we need: 1. To be in a distraction-free environment 2. To have control over what we are doing at every moment

Being in a hurry is inversely proportional to quality of

appreciate the beauty of imperfection as an opportunity for growth.

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

As the quip attributed to Einstein goes, “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That is relativity.

the people who live the longest have two dispositional traits in common: a positive attitude and a high degree of emotional awareness. In other words, those who face challenges with a positive outlook and are able to manage their emotions are already well on their way toward longevity.

Instead of searching for beauty in perfection, we should look for it in things that are flawed, incomplete.

Instead of worrying about the past or the future, we should appreciate things just as they are in the moment, in the now.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." - Reinhold Niebuhr

Stoicism, which centers on the idea that there is nothing wrong with enjoying life’s pleasures as long as they do not take control of your life as you enjoy them. You have to be prepared for those pleasures to disappear.

If you don’t like reality, create another where you can live.

Only things that are imperfect, incomplete, and ephemeral can truly be beautiful, because only those things resemble the natural world.

Morita explained the idea of letting go of negative feelings with the following fable: A donkey that is tied to a post by a rope will keep walking around the post in an attempt to free itself, only to become more immobilized and attached to the post. The same thing applies to people with obsessive thinking who become more trapped in their own suffering when they try to escape from their fears and discomfort.5

His experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz showed him that “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

There is, in fact, no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense of “leaving the workforce for good

Avoid spending time doing things we don’t enjoy

Hara hachi bu,” which is repeated before or after eating and means something like “Fill your belly to 80 percent.

Even those who claim to be good at multitasking are not very productive. In fact, they are some of the least productive people.

When doing business in Japan, process, manners, and how you work on something is more important than the final results

Have a clear, concrete objective

Just as worry often brings about precisely the thing that was feared, excessive attention to a desire (or “hyper-intention”) can keep that desire from being fulfilled.

七転び八起き Fall seven times, rise eight. — Japanese proverb

Keep going; don’t change your path.” そのままでいいがな

when you have a clear purpose, no one can stop you.

the keys to longevity are diet, exercise, finding a purpose in life (an ikigai), and forming strong social ties—

Getting back to Albert Einstein, “a happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell on the future.

Morita likened emotions to the weather: We can’t predict or control them; we can only observe them.

you have to accept that the world—like the people who live in it—is imperfect, but that it is still full of opportunities for growth and achievement.

As a rule of thumb, remind yourself: “Rituals over goals.” The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.

One way to reach a state of mindfulness is through meditation, which helps filter the information that reaches us from the outside world. It can also be achieved through breathing exercises, yoga, and body scans.

We often think that combining tasks will save us time, but scientific evidence shows that it has the opposite effect. Even those who claim to be good at multitasking are not very productive. In fact, they are some of the least productive people. Our brains can take million bits of information but can only actually process of few dozen per second. When we say we're multitasking, what we're really doing is switching back and forth between tasks very quickly. Unfortunately, we're not computers adept at parallel processing. We end up spending all our energy alternative between tasks, instead of focusing on doing one of them well. Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow.

Okinawans live by the principle of ichariba chode, a local expression that means “treat everyone like a brother, even if you’ve never met them before.” It turns out that one of the secrets to happiness of Ogimi’s residents is feeling like part of a community.

Life is pure imperfection, as the philosophy of wabi-sabi teaches us, and the passage of time shows us that everything is fleeting, but if you have a clear sense of your ikigai, each moment will hold so many possibilities that it will seem almost like an eternity.

The question to ask, as much to write a story as to write—or reinvent—the script of your life, is What if . . . ?

if you’re brave enough to do what you love, every day could be the best day of your life.

Stress: Accused of killing longevity

Morita therapy focuses on teaching patients to accept their emotions without trying to control them, since their feelings will change as a result of their actions.

Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow

Sunday neurosis, for example, is what happens when, without the obligations and commitments of the workweek, the individual realizes how empty he is inside.

Can someone really retire if he is passionate about what he does?

Happiness is always determined by your heart.” しあわせはいつも自分の心がきめる.

komorebi—the play of sunbeams filtering through tree branches,

You are a miracle, and there has never been-- nor will there ever be--anyone like you - Pau (Pablo) Casals

We should never forget that everything we have and all the people we love will disappear at some point. This is something we should keep in mind, but without giving in to pessimism.

the things we love are like the leaves of a tree: They can fall at any moment with a gust of wind. He also said that changes in the world around us are not accidental but rather form part of the essence of the universe

Conservatism, I argue, is a male-centric strategy shaped significantly by the struggle for dominance in within-and-between group mate competitions, while liberalism is a female-centric strategy derived from the protracted demands of rearing human offspring, among other selective pressures.

Imagine that a writer has to finish a novel in three months. The objective is clear; the problem is that the writer can't stop obsessing over it. Every day she wakes up thinking, "I have to write that novel," and every day she sets about reading the newspaper and cleaning the house. Every evening she feels frustrated and promises she'll get to work the next day. Days, weeks, and months pass, and the writer still has't gotten anything down on the page, when all it would have taken was to sit down and get that first word out, then the second . . . to flow with the project, expressing their ikigai. As soon as you take these first small steps, your anxiety will disappear and you will achieve a pleasant flow in the activity you're doing.

«Nadie se baña dos veces en el mismo río, porque todo cambia, en el río y en quien se baña».

Life is not a problem to be solved. Just remember to have something that keeps you busy doing what you love while being surrounde by the people who love you

The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.

Existential frustration arises when our life is without purpose, or when that purpose is skewed.

He’s not a bad man,” Hector said. “An underwhelming endorsement,” she said.

The secret is smiling and having a good time.

Walk slowly and you’ll go far

The Buddha summed it up with perhaps his most famous saying, “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

The moment is a jealous lover that demands we give it our all. Every unrepeatable moment is a small oasis of happiness. And many oases together make an ocean of happiness.

ikigai: discovering something we become passionate about and which also comes easily to us.

If you are angry and want to fight, think about it for three days before coming to blows. After three days, the intense desire to fight will pass on its own.

Beauty always wins. It survives the passing of time. That is why it is worthwhile hanging onto the beautiful things in our life.

What we are experiencing right now will never happen again. And therefore, we must value each moment like a beautiful treasure.

it is all about giving more importance to quality than to quantity,

Happiness is in the doing, not in the result.

Even an elderly person can decide to wipe the slate clean and reinvent themselves, because they, too, have their whole life ahead of them. What matters isn’t how many more years we might live but what we will do with the time we have left.

Nana korobi ya oki 七転び八起き Fall seven times, rise eight. —Japanese proverb Resilience is our ability to deal with setbacks. The more resilient we are, the easier it will be to pick ourselves up and get back to what gives meaning to our lives.

Researchers at the Heidelberg University Hospital conducted a study in which they subjected a young doctor to a job interview, which they made even more stressful by forcing him to solve complex math problems for thirty minutes. Afterward, they took a blood sample. What they discovered was that his antibodies had reacted to stress the same way they react to pathogens, activating the proteins that trigger an immune response. The problem is that this response not only neutralizes harmful agents, it also damages healthy cells, leading them to age prematurely.

A donkey that is tied to a post by a rope will keep walking around the post in an attempt to free itself, only to become more immobilized and attached to the post. The same thing applies to people with obsessive thinking who become more trapped in their own suffering when they try to escape from their fears and discomfort.

We don’t create our feelings; they simply come to us, and we have to accept them. The trick is welcoming them. Morita likened emotions to the weather: We can’t predict or control them; we can only observe them. To this point, he often quoted the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who would say, “Hello, solitude. How are you today? Come, sit with me, and I will care for you.

If we have obsessive thoughts, we should not try to control them or get rid of them. If we do, they become more intense. Regarding human emotions, the Zen master would say, “If we try to get rid of one wave with another, we end up with an infinite sea.” We don’t create our feelings; they simply come to us, and we have to accept them. The trick is welcoming them. Morita likened emotions to the weather: We can’t predict or control them; we can only observe them.

flat where I reside, plus many bonds, I have lost count of them. I have invested extensively in a number of ventures.” It was all true, even an understatement. He was as wealthy as any of Beaulieu’s friends. Perhaps not so wealthy as Beaulieu himself, though he was not fully aware of the man’s finances, but wealthy enough to dine in the same establishments he did, join the same gentlemen’s clubs, obtain invitations to the same parties. He’d soared to rare heights without the benefit of family or friends. How he’d managed this in ten scant years was explained rather easily. Hector had been possessed. He’d felt it necessary

My darling son: depression at your age is more common than you might think. I remember it very strongly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when I was about twenty-six and felt like killing myself. I think the winter, the cold, the lack of sunshine, for us tropical creatures, is a trigger. And to tell you the truth, the idea that you might soon unpack your bags here, having chucked in all your European plans, makes your mother and me as happy as could be. You have more than earned the equivalent of any university 'degree' and you have used your time so well to educate yourself culturally and personally that if university bores you, it is only natural. Whatever you do from here on in, whether you write or don't write, whether you get a degree or not, whether you work for your mother, or at El Mundo, or at La Ines, or teaching at a high school, or giving lectures like Estanislao Zuleta, or as a psychoanalyst to your parents, sisters and relatives, or simply being Hector Abad Faciolince, will be fine. What matters is that you don't stop being what you have been up till now, a person, who simply by virtue of being the way you are, not for what you write or don't write, or for being brilliant or prominent, but just for being the way you are, has earned the affection, the respect, the acceptance, the trust, the love, of the vast majority of those who know you. So we want to keep seeing you in this way, not as a future great author, or journalist or communicator or professor or poet, but as the son, brother, relative, friend, humanist, who understands others and does not aspire to be understood. It does not matter what people think of you, and gaudy decoration doesn't matter, for those of us who know you are. For goodness' sake, dear Quinquin, how can you think 'we support you (...) because 'that boy could go far'? You have already gone very far, further than all our dreams, better than everything we imagined for any of our children. You should know very well that your mother's and my ambitions are not for glory, or for money, or even for happiness, that word that sounds so pretty but is attained so infrequently and for such short intervals (and maybe for that very reason is so valued), for all our children, but that they might at least achieve well-being, that more solid, more durable, more possible, more attainable word. We have often talked of the anguish of Carlos Castro Saavedra, Manuel Meija Vallejo, Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt, and so many quasi-geniuses we know. Or Sabato or Rulfo, or even Garcia Marquez. That does not matter. Remember Goethe: 'All theory (I would add, and all art), dear friend, is grey, but only the golden tree of life springs ever green.' What we want for you is to 'live'. And living means many better things than being famous, gaining qualifications or winning prizes. I think I too had boundless political ambitions when I was young and that's why I wasn't happy. I think I too had boundless political ambitions when I was young and that's why I wasn't happy. Only now, when all that has passed, have I felt really happy. And part of that happiness is Cecilia, you, and all my children and grandchildren. Only the memory of Marta Cecilia tarnishes it. I believe things are that simple, after having gone round and round in circles, complicating them so much. We should do away with this love for things as ethereal as fame, glory, success... Well, my Quinquin, now you know what I think of you and your future. There's no need for you to worry. You are doing just fine and you'll do better, and when you get to my age or your grandfather's age and you can enjoy the scenery around La Ines that I intend to leave to all of you, with the sunshine, heat and lush greenery, and you'll see I was right. Don't stay there longer than you feel you can. If you want to come back I'll welcome you with open arms. And if you regret it and want to go back again, we can buy you another return flight. A kiss from your father.