"…I gave myself a conditional, six-month contract. 

I wouldn’t tell anyone what I was doing. 

I’d just… goof around, with this Lincoln idea, for six months. 

If it didn’t work, it could stay my little secret,"

“…problems aren’t really problems – they’re the way you find your book.

Originality is really just acknowledging, and then solving, as well as you can, the problems that arise,"

"Going all in on something for a month gets better results than dabbling in it for a decade. The dabbler spreads their energy over many things.

The focused person concentrates their effort on one.

The most dangerous competitor is the one with a single goal."

"In one of his most famous letters to Lucilius, Seneca gives a pretty simple prescription for the good life. “Each day,” he wrote, “acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes, as well and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day.”

One gain per day. That’s it. One quote, one prescription, one story.

George Washington’s favorite saying was “many mickles make a muckle.” It was an old Scottish proverb that illustrates a truth we all know: things add up. Even little ones. Even at the pace of one per day. Because, as the Stoics would say, it’s the little things that add up to wisdom and to virtue. What you read, who you study under, what you prioritize. Day to day, practiced over a lifetime, this is what creates greatness. This is what leads to a good life,"