Ask HN: What is a quote that permanently changed the way you think?

"If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested, they're not values: they're hobbies." -- Jon Stewart

The phone quote is originally from Alan Watts, I believe. :)

Congratulations on hanging up the phone. <3 You did good.

"In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present,—I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm?—But this is more pleasant.—Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion? Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their several parts of the universe? And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which, is according to thy nature?"

"he who makes a beast of ones self, rids the pain of being a man"

So much to say about human behavior here... Anyways, one should try it sometime, can be liberating even in small doses.

"To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." - Elbert Hubbard