Tim Ferriss is an American author, entrepreneur, and podcaster known for his bestselling books and successful investments. Born in 1977, he attended Princeton University and founded BrainQUICKEN, a nutritional supplements company. His 2007 book “The 4-Hour Workweek” became a #1 New York Times bestseller and was translated into over 35 languages. Ferriss has written several other bestsellers and hosts a popular podcast, “The Tim Ferriss Show”, featuring interviews with successful individuals. He is also an early-stage technology investor and advisor, having invested in companies like Uber and Facebook. Ferriss has been featured in numerous media outlets and is a guest lecturer at Princeton University.

Tim Ferriss Quotes

1. “Focus on being productive instead of busy.”
— Tim Ferriss

2. “If you don’t have time, the truth is, you don’t have priorities. Think harder; don’t work harder.”
— Tim Ferriss

3. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”
— Tim Ferriss

4. “The most important actions are never comfortable.”
— Tim Ferriss

5. “It isn’t enough to think outside the box. Thinking is passive. Get used to acting outside the box.”
— Tim Ferriss

6. “Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.”
— Tim Ferriss

7. “You can lose money and make it back, you can’t do that with time.”
— Tim Ferriss

8. “Lack of time is actually lack of priorities.”
— Tim Ferriss

9. “One can steal ideas, but no one can steal execution or passion.”
— Tim Ferriss

10. “The best way to improve mental performance, is to improve physical performance.”
— Tim Ferriss

11. “An entrepreneur isn’t someone who owns a business, it’s someone who makes things happen.”
— Tim Ferriss

12. “Reality is negotiable.”
— Tim Ferriss

13. “Life is too short to be small.”
— Tim Ferriss

14. “If the challenge we face doesn’t scare us, then it’s probably not that important.”
— Tim Ferriss

15. “Think big and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done. Life’s too short to think small.”
— Tim Ferriss

16. “A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.”
— Tim Ferriss

17. “Three ingredients of luxury lifestyle design are time, income, and mobility.”
— Tim Ferriss

18. “Money doesn’t change you; it reveals who you are when you no longer have to be nice.”
— Tim Ferriss

19. “But you are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.”
— Tim Ferriss

20. “Fear is your friend. It is an indicator. Sometimes it shows you what you shouldn’t do, more often than not it shows you what you should do.”
— Tim Ferriss

21. “Ninety-nine percent of people believe they can’t do great things, so they aim for mediocrity.”
— Tim Ferriss

22. “Simplicity requires ruthlessness.”
— Tim Ferriss

23. “Short, sweet, and to the point. Clear writing, and therefore clear commands, comes from clear thinking. Think simple.”

— Tim Ferriss

24. “Be bold and don’t worry about what people think. They don’t do it that often anyway.”
— Tim Ferriss

25. “Lacking an external focus, the mind turns inward on itself and creates problems to solve, even if the problems are undefined or unimportant. If you find a focus, an ambitious goal that seems impossible and forces you to grow, these doubts disappear.”
— Tim Ferriss

26. “Believe it or not, it is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory. Enter the world of elimination.”
— Tim Ferriss

27. “People will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”
— Tim Ferriss

28. “Doing something unimportant well does not make it important,”
— Tim Ferriss

29. “If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too.”
— Tim Ferriss

30. “Perfection is an impossible destination.”
— Tim Ferriss

31. “What you do is infinitely more important than how you do it.”
— Tim Ferriss

32. “Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all.”
— Tim Ferriss

33. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
— Tim Ferriss

34. “Doing less is not being lazy. Don’t give in to a culture that values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.”
— Tim Ferriss

35. “Just because you are embarrassed to admit that you’re still living the consequences of bad decisions made 5, 10, 20 years ago shouldn’t stop you from making good decisions now. If you let pride stop you, you will hate life 5, 10, and 20 years from now for the same reasons.”
— Tim Ferriss

36. “The decent method you follow is better than the perfect method you quit.”
— Tim Ferriss

37. “Don’t suffer fools or you’ll become one.”
— Tim Ferriss

38. “Luxury, to me, is not owning a lot of stuff. Luxury, to me, is feeling unrushed.”
— Tim Ferriss

39. “The best results I have had in my life; the most enjoyable times, have all come from asking the simple question: ‘What is the worst that could happen?’”
— Tim Ferriss

40. “Luxury is feeling unrushed. It is designing a life that allows you to do what you want with high leverage, with many options, all while feeling unrushed.”
— Tim Ferriss

41. “The biggest misconception about work is that you need to spend the majority of your time doing it.”
— Tim Ferriss

42. “The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is boredom.”
— Tim Ferriss

43. “Information is useless if it is not applied to something important or if you will forget it before you have a chance to apply it.”
— Tim Ferriss

44. “The best way to counter-attack a hater is to make it blatantly obvious that their attack has had no impact on you.”
— Tim Ferriss

45. “People don’t want to be millionaires – they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy.”
— Tim Ferriss

46. “Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic.”
— Tim Ferriss

47. “I’m not a big believer in long-term planning and far-off goals. In fact, I generally set 3-month and 6-month dreamlines. The variables change too much and in-the-future distance becomes an excuse for postponing action.”
— Tim Ferriss

48. “There are two components that are fundamental to enjoy life and feel good about yourself: continual learning and service.”
— Tim Ferriss

49. “The best entrepreneurs I’ve ever met are all good communicators. It’s perhaps one of the very few unifying factors.”
— Tim Ferriss

50. “Sometimes you need to go on a low-information diet.”
— Tim Ferriss

51. “Many a false step was made by standing still.”
— Tim Ferriss

52. “I’m prepared to do battle for a dream that is worth dreaming.”
— Tim Ferriss

53. “People are smarter than you think. Give them a chance to prove themselves.”
— Tim Ferriss

54. “Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitate to get in the way if you’re moving.”
— Tim Ferriss

55. “You think you’re fatigued, therefore you can’t exercise. In fact, you choose not to move, therefore you feel fatigued.”
— Tim Ferriss

56. “As far as income goes, there are three currencies in the world; most people ignore two. The three currencies are time, income and mobility, in descending order of importance. Most people focus exclusively on income.”
— Tim Ferriss

57. “Just a few words on time management: forget all about it.”
— Tim Ferriss

58. “Poisonous people do not deserve your time. To think otherwise is masochistic.”
— Tim Ferriss

59. “Different is better when it is more effective or more fun.”
— Tim Ferriss

60. “Don’t follow a model that doesn’t work. If the recipe sucks, it doesn’t matter how good a cook you are.”
— Tim Ferriss

61. “Learn to be difficult when it counts. In school as in life, having a reputation for being assertive will help you receive preferential treatment without having to beg or fight for it every time.”
— Tim Ferriss

62. “Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.”
— Tim Ferriss

63. “Fun things happen when you earn dollars, live on pesos, and compensate in rupees.”
— Tim Ferriss

64. “Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: what you do, when you do it, where you do it, and with whom you do it. I call this the freedom multiplier.”

— Tim Ferriss

65. “Just because something has been a lot of work or consumed a lot of time doesn’t make it productive or worthwhile.”
— Tim Ferriss

66. “You don’t have to travel, but I find extended travel to be a helpful tool for reexamining yourself and the constraints you’ve artificially placed on your life. It’s easy to believe everything has to be done one way if you’re always in one place around the same people.”
— Tim Ferriss

67. “Uncertainty and the prospect of failure can be very scary noises in the shadows. Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”
— Tim Ferriss

68. “People who avoid all criticism fail. It’s destructive criticism we need to avoid, not criticism in all forms.”
— Tim Ferriss

69. “By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable. It’s the perfect example of having your cake and eating it, too.”
— Tim Ferriss

70. “$1,000,000 in the bank isn’t the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows.”
— Tim Ferriss

71. “The goal is not to simply eliminate the bad, which does nothing more than leave you with a vacuum, but to pursue and experience the best in the world.”
— Tim Ferriss

72. “The bottom line is that you only have the rights you fight for.”
— Tim Ferriss

73. “Converting your own passions into a job is the fastest method for eliminating any passion you once had.”
— Tim Ferriss

74. “There are certain things I will automate, but when it comes to quality control, I want to keep a very close eye.”
— Tim Ferriss

75. “If only I had more money is the easiest way to postpone the intense self-examination and decision-making necessary to create a life of enjoyment – now and not later.”
— Tim Ferriss

76. “Everything that works in sales has been done already. Just keep track of the crap that you buy, or the awesome stuff that you buy, and decide what was the trigger, and then just sell to people like you. It’s really that easy – and that’s what I do.”
— Tim Ferriss

77. “Dreamlining is so named because it applies timelines to what most would consider dreams.”
— Tim Ferriss

78. “Companies that start by redesigning the economics of an industry often finish by redesigning the whole industry-and owning it.”
— Tim Ferriss

79. “Nothing can match the wonderment that comes from staring up into the star-filled canopy above and realizing that you are a part of that creation.”
— Tim Ferriss

80. “For the employee, the goal is to have full access to necessary information and as much independent decision-making ability as possible. For the entrepreneur, the goal is to grant as much information and independent decision-making ability to employees or contractors as possible.”
— Tim Ferriss

81. “Changing the world doesn’t require much money. Again, think in terms of empowerment and not charity. How much were Gandhi’s teachers paid? How much did it cost to give Dr. Martin Luther King the books that catalyzed his mind and actions?”
— Tim Ferriss

82. “I discourage passive skepticism, which is the armchair variety where people sit back and criticize without ever subjecting their theories or themselves to real field testing.”
— Tim Ferriss

83. “What would this look like if it were easy?”
— Tim Ferriss

84. “I gauge success in years, not weeks. The weekend box-office approach to book launches is short sighted and encourages crappy books.”
— Tim Ferriss

85. “Stop wishing and start doing.”
— Tim Ferriss

86. “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” – James Cameron.”
— Tim Ferriss

87. “Losers have goals. Winners have systems.”
— Tim Ferriss

88. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.”
— Tim Ferriss

89. “Kids don’t do what you say. They do what they see. How you live your life is their example.”
— Tim Ferriss

90. “No one owes you anything.”
— Tim Ferriss

91. “The future is already here – it’s just unevenly distributed.” – William Gibson.”
— Tim Ferriss

92. “If you let your learning lead to knowledge, you become a fool. If you let your learning lead to action, you become wealthy.”
— Tim Ferriss

93. “The means of learning are abundant – it’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”
— Tim Ferriss

94. “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” – J. Krishnamurti.”
— Tim Ferriss

95. “What gets measured gets managed. – PETER DRUCKER, management theorist, author.”
— Tim Ferriss

96. “Don’t do things that you know are morally wrong. Not because someone is watching, but because you are. Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You’ll always know.”
— Tim Ferriss

97. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu.”
— Tim Ferriss

98. “Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective – doing less – is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.”
— Tim Ferriss

99. “As Tony Robbins would say, “The quality of your questions determines the quality of your life.”
— Tim Ferriss

100. “There is just less competition for bigger goals.”
— Tim Ferriss

101. “80% of the results come from 20% of the effort and time.”
— Tim Ferriss

102. “Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.”
— Tim Ferriss

103. “If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito.” – Betty Reese.”
— Tim Ferriss

104. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ You won’t believe what you can accomplish by attempting the impossible with the courage to repeatedly fail better.”
— Tim Ferriss

105. “You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”
— Tim Ferriss

106. “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.”
— Tim Ferriss

107. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln.”
— Tim Ferriss

108. “Busy is a decision.” Here’s why: Of the many, many excuses people use to rationalize why they can’t do something, the excuse “I am too busy” is not only the most inauthentic, it is also the laziest. I don’t believe in “too busy.” Like I said, busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is shorthand for “not important enough.”
— Tim Ferriss

109. “Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”
— Tim Ferriss

110. “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” – Albert Einstein.”
— Tim Ferriss

111. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” –Marcus Aurelius.”
— Tim Ferriss

112. “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. – ALBERT EINSTEIN.”
— Tim Ferriss

113. “Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. The heroes in this book are no different. Everyone struggles. Take solace in that.”
— Tim Ferriss

114. “The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a choice that you make and a skill that you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles.”
— Tim Ferriss

115. “Life punishes the vague wish and rewards the specific ask.”
— Tim Ferriss

116. “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
— Tim Ferriss

117. “If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. – CHINESE PROVERB.”
— Tim Ferriss

118. “We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” – Archilochus.”
— Tim Ferriss

119. “You’re not responsible for the hand of cards you were dealt. You’re responsible for maxing out what you were given.”
— Tim Ferriss

120. “Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.” – Thomas Edison.”
— Tim Ferriss

121. “The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.”
— Tim Ferriss

122. “Never let a good crisis go to waste. It’s the universe challenging you to learn something new and rise to the next level of your potential.”
— Tim Ferriss

123. “One of the most universal causes of self-doubt and depression: trying to impress people you don’t like. Stressing to impress is fine, but do it for the right people – those you want to emulate.”
— Tim Ferriss

124. “Happiness is a choice you make and a skill you develop.”
— Tim Ferriss

125. “Named must your fear be before banish it you can. – YODA, from Star Wars:.”
— Tim Ferriss

126. “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. – PABLO PICASSO.”
— Tim Ferriss

127. “My goal is to learn things once and use them forever.”
— Tim Ferriss

128. “If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.”
— Tim Ferriss

129. “Don’t confuse the complex with the difficult. Most situations are simple – many are just emotionally difficult to act upon.”
— Tim Ferriss

130. “The Tail End” by Tim Urban on the Wait But Why blog – if you only read one article this month, make it that one. It.”
— Tim Ferriss

131. “Make your peace with the fact that saying ‘no’ often requires trading popularity for respect.” – Greg McKeown, Essentialism.”
— Tim Ferriss

132. “Learn to slow down. Get lost intentionally. Observe how you judge both yourself and those around you.”
— Tim Ferriss

133. “It’s always the hard part that creates value.”
— Tim Ferriss

134. “Doing less meaningless work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness.”
— Tim Ferriss

135. “Too much, too many, and too often of what you want becomes what you don’t want.”
— Tim Ferriss

136. “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” –Steve Jobs.”
— Tim Ferriss

137. “When You Complain, Nobody Wants to Help You.”
— Tim Ferriss

138. “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” – Epictetus.”
— Tim Ferriss

139. “Remember – boredom is the enemy, not some abstract “failure.”
— Tim Ferriss

140. “If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?”
— Tim Ferriss

141. “Aristotle had it right, but he was missing a number: “We are what we do repeatedly.”
— Tim Ferriss

142. “Refuse to accept partial completeness.”
— Tim Ferriss

143. “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.”
— Tim Ferriss

144. “What would this look like if it were easy? “This” could be anything. That morning, it was answering a laundry list of big questions. What would this look like if it were easy? is such a lovely and deceptively leveraged question. It’s easy to convince yourself that things need to be hard, that if you’re not redlining, you’re not trying hard enough. This leads us to look for paths of most resistance, often creating unnecessary hardship in the process.”
— Tim Ferriss

145. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I.”
— Tim Ferriss

146. “If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.”
— Tim Ferriss

147. “Ours is a culture where we wear our ability to get by on very little sleep as a kind of badge of honor that symbolizes work ethic, or toughness, or some other virtue – but really, it’s a total profound failure of priorities and of self-respect.”
— Tim Ferriss

148. “Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective – doing less – is the path of the productive.”
— Tim Ferriss

149. “Borrow liberally, combine uniquely, and create your own bespoke blueprint.”
— Tim Ferriss

150. “Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You’ll always know.”
— Tim Ferriss