# Quotes

A notebook of lines Miguel Cordero Collar returns to. Text and attributions are reproduced as collected; follow the source link for context.

Updated: 2026-10-19

Source data: [https://miguelcorderocollar.com/quotes/quotes-data.json](https://miguelcorderocollar.com/quotes/quotes-data.json)

## David Heinemeier Hansson · Work

> To be a successful founder, you have to believe that what you're working on is going to work — despite knowing it probably won't!

— David Heinemeier Hansson, [Believe it's going to work even though it probably won't](https://world.hey.com/dhh/believe-it-s-going-to-work-even-though-it-probably-won-t-58fd9dc5)

## David Heinemeier Hansson · Building

> The best thing about work is getting the opportunity to exercise your human capacity for creativity, ingenuity, progress.

— David Heinemeier Hansson, [How it started / how it's going](https://world.hey.com/dhh/how-it-started-how-it-s-going-baefaf09)

## Elon Musk · Reason

> You have to build up the reasoning from the ground up from first principles as in the phrase that's used in physics.

— Elon Musk, [The Henry Ford interview](https://www.thehenryford.org/docs/thehenryfordlibraries/innovator-transcripts/transcript_musk_full-length5a30f6547bde445e8119d53fb454b300.pdf?sfvrsn=f4eeb20a_1)

## Elon Musk · Work

> Just showing up is half the battle. You gotta try hard to do it, and don't be afraid of failure.

— Elon Musk, [The Henry Ford interview](https://www.thehenryford.org/docs/thehenryfordlibraries/innovator-transcripts/transcript_musk_full-length5a30f6547bde445e8119d53fb454b300.pdf?sfvrsn=f4eeb20a_1)

## Miguel Anxo Bastos · Economics

> Capitalism is a way of thinking, a mindset that invites you to save and work.

Original wording:

> El capitalismo es una forma de pensar, una forma mental que te invita a ahorrar y trabajar.

— Miguel Anxo Bastos, [Discurso en el Instituto Juan de Mariana](https://www.libertaddigital.com/libremercado/2023-06-04/miguel-anxo-bastos-si-tuviera-poder-solo-pondria-una-ley-respetar-la-propiedad-privada-7022041/)

## Ayn Rand · Individualism

> I am. I think. I will.

— Ayn Rand, [Anthem](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#Anthem_(1937))

## Ayn Rand · Ambition

> Anyone who fights for the future, lives in it today.

— Ayn Rand, [The Romantic Manifesto](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand#The_Romantic_Manifesto_(1969))

## George Orwell · Freedom

> If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

— George Orwell, [Original preface to Animal Farm](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell#Animal_Farm_(1945))

## Antonio Escohotado · Freedom

> From the skin inward begins my exclusive jurisdiction. I choose what may or may not cross that border. I am a sovereign state, and the boundaries of my skin are far more sacred to me than the political borders of any country.

Original wording:

> De la piel para dentro empieza mi exclusiva jurisdicción. Elijo yo aquello que puede o no cruzar esa frontera. Soy un Estado soberano, y las lindes de mi piel me resultan mucho más sagradas que los confines políticos de cualquier país

— Antonio Escohotado, User-submitted

## Antonio Escohotado · Truth

> Truth stands on its own; only lies need government subsidy.

Original wording:

> La verdad se impone sola; solo las mentiras necesitan subvención del gobierno

— Antonio Escohotado, User-submitted

## Marcus Aurelius · Reason

> Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

— Marcus Aurelius, [Meditations, III.11](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius#Book_III)

## Marcus Aurelius · Responsibility

> Often injustice lies in what you aren't doing, not only in what you are doing.

— Marcus Aurelius, [Meditations, IX.5](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius#Book_IX)

## Sam Harris · Mind

> Our minds largely determine the quality of our lives.

— Sam Harris, [The Minimalists interview](https://www.theminimalists.com/sam/)

## Sam Harris · Attention

> Your mind is all you truly have. So it makes sense to train it.

— Sam Harris, [The Minimalists interview](https://www.theminimalists.com/sam/)

## Richard Dawkins · Science

> There's real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality.

— Richard Dawkins, [Unweaving the Rainbow](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins#Unweaving_the_Rainbow_(1998))

## Richard Dawkins · Wonder

> The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable.

— Richard Dawkins, [Unweaving the Rainbow](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins#Unweaving_the_Rainbow_(1998))

## Christopher Hitchens · Independence

> The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.

— Christopher Hitchens, [Letters to a Young Contrarian](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens#Letters_to_a_Young_Contrarian_(2001))

## Christopher Hitchens · Reason

> Time spent arguing with the faithful is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.

— Christopher Hitchens, [Letters to a Young Contrarian](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens#Letters_to_a_Young_Contrarian_(2001))

## Jordan B. Peterson · Truth

> First stop lying, then start speaking the truth.

— Jordan B. Peterson, [Interview: Free Speech & Social Justice](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson#Interviews)

## Jordan B. Peterson · Responsibility

> Responsibility, man: that's where the meaning in life is.

— Jordan B. Peterson, [Maps of Meaning 11: The Flood and the Tower](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/139-maps-of-meaning-11-the-flood-and-the-tower/id1184022695?i=1000493535355)

## Unknown author · Identity

> You're a community across time.

— Unknown author, User-submitted

## Juan Ramón Rallo · Freedom

> Freedom is always under threat, so we must keep renewing the reasons for defending it.

Original wording:

> La libertad siempre está bajo amenazas y, por tanto, siempre hay que renovar las razones para defenderla.

— Juan Ramón Rallo, [Entrevista en Diario de Sevilla](https://www.diariodesevilla.es/entrevistas/juan-ramon-rallo-libertad-siempre-amenazas_0_1388261680.html)

## Thomas Sowell · Economics

> Some bad policies are just good policies that have been carried too far.

— Thomas Sowell, [Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays, p. 456](https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/9780817947521_441.pdf#page=16)

## Lee Kuan Yew · Work

> I set out to do something, I keep on chasing it until it succeeds. That's all.

— Lee Kuan Yew, [Quoted in Lee Hsien Loong's eulogy, 29 March 2015](https://www.pmo.gov.sg/newsroom/transcript-eulogy-prime-minister-lee-hsien-loong-funeral-late-mr-lee-kuan-yew-29-march/)

## Milton Friedman · Freedom

> Economic freedom is an end in itself to a believer in a free society. It is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom.

— Milton Friedman, [Capitalism and Freedom](https://files.libertyfund.org/files/2492/Friedman_CapitalismFreedom1961.pdf)

## Milton Friedman · Economics

> A society that puts equality — in the sense of equality of outcome — ahead of freedom will end up with neither.

— Milton Friedman, [Capitalism and Freedom](https://files.libertyfund.org/files/2492/Friedman_CapitalismFreedom1961.pdf)

## C. Tangana · Creativity

> The more I do whatever the hell I want, the better life goes for me.

Original wording:

> Cuanto más hago lo que me sale de los huevos, mejor me va en la vida.

— C. Tangana, [Entrevista en El País](https://elpais.com/cultura/2023-07-08/c-tangana-cuanto-mas-hago-lo-que-me-sale-de-los-huevos-mejor-me-va-en-la-vida.html)

## Ralph Waldo Emerson · Individualism

> A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, [Self-Reliance](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2944/2944-h/2944-h.htm)

## Adam Smith · Responsibility

> mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent

— Adam Smith, [The Theory of Moral Sentiments](https://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Smith/tms223.html)

## Mitchell Hashimoto · Work

> The pursuit of excellence does not need justification.

— Mitchell Hashimoto, [Post on X, July 6, 2026](https://x.com/mitchellh/status/2074225453217505494)

## Charlie Munger · Economics

> If you have a dumb incentive system, you get dumb outcomes.

— Charlie Munger, [2016 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting](https://buffett.cnbc.com/video/2016/04/30/munger-if-you-have-a-dumb-incentive-system-you-get-dumb-outcomes.html)

## Unknown author · Work

> YOU CAN JUST DO THINGS

— Unknown author, User-submitted

## Unknown author · Building

> We can fix everything

— Unknown author, User-submitted

## Theodore Roosevelt · Ambition

> The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, if he wins, knows the thrills of high achievement, and, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

— Theodore Roosevelt, [Citizenship in a Republic](https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/encyclopedia/culture-and-society/man-in-the-arena/)

## Leonardo da Vinci · Responsibility

> Not to punish evil is equivalent to authorizing it.

— Leonardo da Vinci, [Thoughts on Art and Life, "Proverbs" (§111), translated by Maurice Baring](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/29904/pg29904-images.html)