Naval Ravikant Quotes

A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought — they must be earned.

Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

If you’re not willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100 percent swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous.

The reality is life is a single-player game. You’re born alone. You’re going to die alone. All of your interpretations are alone. All your memories are alone. You’re gone in three generations, and nobody cares. Before you showed up, nobody cared. It’s all single player.

Earn with your mind, not your time.

The more desire I have for something to work out a certain way, the less likely I am to see the truth.

A happy person isn’t someone who’s happy all the time. It’s someone who effortlessly interprets events in such a way that they don’t lose their innate peace.

A rational person can find peace by cultivating indifference to things outside their control.

Forty hour workweeks are a relic of the Industrial Age. Knowledge workers function like athletes — train and sprint, then rest and reassess.

I have lowered my identity. I have lowered the chattering of my mind. I don’t care about things that don’t really matter. I don’t get involved in politics. I don’t hang around unhappy people. I really value my time on this earth. I read philosophy. I meditate.

Escape competition through authenticity.

I don't actually read a lot of books. I pick up a lot of books and only get through a few, which form the foundation of my knowledge.

If you have nothing in your life, but you have at least one person that loves you unconditionally, it’ll do wonders for your self-esteem.

The three big ones in life are wealth, health, and happiness. We pursue them in that order, but their importance is reverse.

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.” —Buddhist saying

The hardest thing is not doing what you want—it’s knowing what you want.

You make your own luck if you stay at it long enough.

Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

If it entertains you now but will bore you someday, it's a distraction. Keep looking.

Intentions don’t matter. Actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard.

Knowledge is a skyscraper. You can take a shortcut with a fragile foundation of memorization, or build slowly upon a steel frame of understanding.

Realize that in modern society, the downside risk is not that large. Even personal bankruptcy can wipe the debts clean in good ecosystems. I’m most familiar with Silicon Valley, but generally, people will forgive failures as long as you were honest and made a high-integrity effort. There’s not really that much to fear in terms of failure, and so people should take on a lot more accountability than they do. [78]

Specific knowledge is found much more by pursuing your innate talents, your genuine curiosity, and your passion. It’s not by going to school for whatever is the hottest job; it’s not by going into whatever field investors say is the hottest.

If I say I’m happy, that means I was sad at some point. If I say he’s attractive, then somebody else is unattractive. Every positive thought even has a seed of a negative thought within it and vice versa, which is why a lot of greatness in life comes out of suffering.

As long as I have a book in my hand, I don’t feel like I’m wasting time.” —Charlie Munger

Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.

I would combine radical honesty with an old rule Warren Buffett has, which is praise specifically, criticize generally.

The means of learning are abundant, the desire to learn is scarce

I would say that the five most important skills are of course, reading, writing, arithmetic, and then as you’re adding in, persuasion, which is talking. And then finally, I would add computer programming just because it’s an applied form of arithmetic that just gets you so much leverage for free in any domain that you operate in. If you’re good with computers, if you’re good at basic mathematics, if you’re good at writing, if you’re good at speaking, and if you like reading, you’re set for life.

To the experts, what looks like hard work from the outside, is play from the inside.

Reading is the ultimate meta-skill that can be traded for anything else.

We constantly walk around thinking, “I need this,” or “I need that,” trapped in the web of desires. Happiness is the state when nothing is missing.

Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan.

Explain what you learned to someone else. Teaching forces learning.

You’re going to die one day, and none of this is going to matter. So enjoy yourself. Do something positive. Project some love. Make someone happy. Laugh a little bit. Appreciate the moment. And do your work. [8]

If you want to be a philosopher king first become a king then become a philosopher. Not first become a philosopher and then become a king.

Memory and identity are burdens from the past preventing us from living freely in the present.

The closer you want to get to me, the better your values have to be.

Happiness is being satisfied with what you have.

The people who have the ability to fail in public under their own name actually gain a lot of power.

Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

Competing without software is like competing without electricity.

Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep.

The only true test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.

Doctors won’t make you healthy. Nutritionists won’t make you slim. Teachers won’t make you smart. Gurus won’t make you calm. Mentors won’t make you rich. Trainers won’t make you fit. Ultimately, you have to take responsibility. Save yourself.

The smarter you get, the slower you read.

If you’re good with computers, if you’re good at basic mathematics, if you’re good at writing, if you’re good at speaking, and if you like reading, you’re set for life.

All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.

My definition of wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions.

Renting out your time means you’re essentially replaceable

When working, surround yourself with people more successful than you.

Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep

No one in the world is going to beat you at being you.

Specialisation is for insects. I don't believe in this model of trying to focus your life down one thing. You've got one life just do everything you want.

Art is anything done for its own sake

It’s only after you’re bored you have the great ideas. It’s never going to be when you’re stressed, or busy, running around or rushed.

A taste of freedom can make you unemployable.

Doing something because you “should” basically means you don’t actually want to do it. It’s just making you miserable, so I’m trying to eliminate as many “shoulds” from my life as possible.

In any situation in life, you only have three options. You always have three options. You can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it. What is not a good option is to sit around wishing you would change it but not changing it, wishing you would leave it but not leaving it, and not accepting it. It's that struggle, that aversion, that is responsible for most of our misery. The phrase that I probably use the most to myself in my head is just one word: accept.

The most dangerous things are heroin and a monthly salary

I think the most common mistake for humanity is believing you’re going to be made happy because of some external circumstance.

It takes time—even once you have all of these pieces in place, there is an indeterminate amount of time you have to put in. If you’re counting, you’ll run out of patience before success actually arrives.

Relaxed breathing tells your body you’re safe.

self-esteem is the reputation that you have with yourself." You’ll always know.

Taleb’s Skin In The Game is required reading

Any meeting with eight people sitting around at a conference table, nothing is getting done in that meeting. You are literally just dying one hour at a time.

Pick an industry where you can play long-term games with long-term people.

calm mind, a fit body, and a house full of love. These things cannot be bought. They must be earned.

Peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion.

The best jobs are neither decreed nor degreed. They are creative expressions of continuous learners in free markets.

Compound interest also happens in your reputation. If you have a sterling reputation and you keep building it for decades upon decades, people will notice. Your reputation will literally end up being thousands or tens of thousands of times more valuable than somebody else who was very talented but is not keeping the compound interest in reputation going.

Essentially, you have to go through your life replacing your thoughtless bad habits with good ones, making a commitment to be a happier person. At the end of the day, you are a combination of your habits and the people who you spend the most time with.

Status is your ranking in the social hierarchy.

An old boss once warned: “You’ll never be rich since you’re obviously smart, and someone will always offer you a job that’s just good enough.

Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re retired.

Happiness is the state when nothing is missing. When nothing is missing, your mind shuts down and stops running into the past or future to regret something or to plan something.

You’re never going to get rich renting out your time.

Be a maker who makes something interesting people want. Show your craft, practice your craft, and the right people will eventually find you.

By the time people realize they have enough money, they’ve lost their time and their health.

A lot of our unhappiness comes from comparing things from the past to the present.

For self-improvement without self-discipline, update your self-image.

Courage isn’t charging into a machine gun nest. Courage is not caring what other people think.

Escape competition through authenticity

The ability to singularly focus is related to the ability to lose yourself and be present, happy, and (ironically) more effective. [4]

The fundamental delusion: There is something out there that will make me happy and fulfilled forever.

A personal metric: how much of the day is spent doing things out of obligation rather than out of interest?

Today, the way we think you get peace is by resolving all your external problems. But there are unlimited external problems. The only way to actually get peace on the inside is by giving up this idea of problems.

I think business networking is a complete waste of time. And I know there are people and companies popularizing this concept because it serves them and their business model well, but the reality is if you’re building something interesting, you will always have more people who will want to know you. Trying to build business relationships well in advance of doing business is a complete waste of time. I have a much more comfortable philosophy: “Be a maker who makes something interesting people want. Show your craft, practice your craft, and the right people will eventually find you.

Meditation is turning off society and listening to yourself. It only “works” when done for its own sake. Hiking is walking meditation. Journaling is writing meditation. Praying is gratitude meditation. Showering is accidental meditation. Sitting quietly is direct meditation.

The most dangerous things are heroin, and a monthly salary." Right, because they are highly addictive.

When you’re young, you have time. You have health, but you have no money. When you’re middle-aged, you have money and you have health, but you have no time. When you’re old, you have money and you have time, but you have no health. So the trifecta is trying to get all three at once. By the time people realize they have enough money, they’ve lost their time and their health. [8]

All benefits in life come from compound interest, whether in money, relationships, love, health, activities, or habits. I only want to be around people I know I’m going to be around for the rest of my life. I only want to work on things I know have long-term payout.

Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start. But usually, the real wealth is created by starting your own companies or even by investing. In an investment firm, they’re buying equity. These are the routes to wealth. It doesn’t come through the hours.

Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman famously said, “You should never, ever fool anybody, and you are the easiest person to fool.” The moment you tell somebody something dishonest, you’ve lied to yourself. Then you’ll start believing your own lie, which will disconnect you from reality and take you down the wrong road.

Our lives are a blink of a firefly in the night. You’re just barely here. You have to make the most of every minute, which doesn’t mean you chase some stupid desire for your entire life. What it means is every second you have on this planet is very precious, and it’s your responsibility to make sure you’re happy and interpreting everything in the best possible way. [9]

Wealth is a very positive sum game. We create things together. We’re starting this endeavor to create this piece of art that explains what we’re doing. At the end of it, something brand new will be created. It’s a positive sum game. Status is a very old game Status, on the other hand, is a zero-sum game. It’s a very old game. We’ve been playing it since monkey tribes. It’s hierarchical. Who’s number one? Who’s number two? Who’s number three? And for number three to move to number two, number two has to move out of that slot. So, status is a zero-sum game.

Getting rich is about knowing what to do, who to do it with, and when to do it. It is much more about understanding than purely hard work. Yes, hard work matters, and you can't skimp on it. But it has to be directed in the right way. If you don't know yet what you should work on, the most important thing is to figure it out. You should not grind at a lot of hard work until you figure out what you should be working on.

I don’t buy the everlasting afterlife answers because it’s insane to me, with absolutely no evidence, to believe because of how you live seventy years here on this planet, you’re going to spend eternity, which is a very long time, in some afterlife. What kind of silly God judges you for eternity based on some small period of time here?

There’s a line from Blaise Pascal I read. Basically, it says: “All of man’s troubles arise because he cannot sit in a room quietly by himself.” If you could just sit for thirty minutes and be happy, you are successful. That is a very powerful place to be, but very few of us get there. [6] I think of happiness as an emergent property of peace. If you’re peaceful inside and out, that will eventually result in happiness. But peace is a very hard thing to come by. The irony is the way most of us try to find peace is through war. When you start a business, in a way, you’re going to war. When you struggle with your roommates as to who should clean the dishes, you’re going to war. You’re struggling so you can have some sense of security and peace later. In reality, peace is not a guarantee. It’s always flowing. It’s always changing. You want to learn the core skill set of flowing with life and accepting it in most cases. [8] You can get almost anything you want out of life, as long as it’s one thing and you want it far more than anything else. In my own personal experience, the place I end up the most is wanting to be at peace. Peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion. You can convert peace into happiness anytime you want. But peace is what you want most of the time. If you’re a peaceful person, anything you do will be a happy activity. Today, the way we think you get peace is by resolving all your external problems. But there are unlimited external problems. The only way to actually get peace on the inside is by giving up this idea of problems. [77]