Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

“All happiness depends on courage and work.”― Honore de Balzac, French author

“If people only knew how hard I’ve worked to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” ― MICHELANGELO, MASTER SCULPTURE, PAINTER, ARCHITECT AND POET I love this quote – it goes such a long way to showing us how even truly exceptional “talent” so often is something we work for, not something we’re born…

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” ― Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US president Don’t leave exam success to chance. Instead, study well, and the “luck” will be on your side!

“I’m not telling you it is going to be easy — I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” ― Art Williams, insurance billionaire Stay the course: remember why it matters as often as you need.

“There are no limits!” ― The quote on the back of the flapjacks in our college canteen. My friends and I adopted it as something of an exam-term battle cry! My personal absolute favourite of all motivational quotes for study success. This got me through some pretty tough times on the road to a First-Class degree…

“There are two kinds of people in this world: those who want to get things done and those who don’t want to make mistakes.” ― John Maxwell, author and leadership expert Go for it. It’s OK to make a mistake – provided you learn from it!

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” ― William Faulkner, writer and Nobel Prize laureate Or as a good friend and mentor, Alan Donegan, likes to say: “Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone… otherwise you’d have it already“. (Little bonus quote there for you!)

“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m Possible’.” ― Audrey Hepburn, actress and humanitarian Mind. BLOWN. Good spot, Audrey!

“The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, that’s the day you start to the top.”― O.J. Simpson, former American football running back

“One of the most common causes of failure is quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.” ― Napoleon Hill, self-help author Edison saw each material that didn’t work not as a failure, but as a learning experience: learning yet another way not to make a light bulb. Defeat is so often temporary, even if it doesn’t feel like…