Quotes from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“You don't need to go back in time to be awesome; you just have to start right now. Regretting that you didn't start earlier is a great distraction from moving on your dream today, and the reality is that today is earlier than tomorrow.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Regardless of what you want to do or who you are, fear will always see you as wholly unqualified for anything you ever dream or attempt.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“People are mistaken when they think chasing your dream is a selfish thing to do. As if perhaps being average is an act of humility. As if perhaps wasting the talents you were given is proof that you're a considerate individual.

It's not.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Fear would have told the Wright brothers not to fly. Fear would have told Rosa Parks to change seats. Fear would have told Steve Jobs that people hate touchscreens.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Joy is an incredible alarm clock. It will wake you up and keep you up and pick you up and gently pull you through a thousand rejections along the way.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“In order to survive, I came up with a five-step secret to getting it all done. If you're busy too, feel free to use it:

1. Admit that you can't possibly get it all done.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“I’m not a fan of “finding your purpose.” I’m a fan of “living with purpose.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Age is no longer the primary factor that determines where you are on the map. Life is now less about how old you are and more about when you decide to live.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Awesome writes great books even if no one is going to read them.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Don't climb a single rung up the entitlement ladder. Demanding something you haven't truly earned is a great way to get stuck in the land of Learning for decades, even an entire lifetime. Kick those ladders over and keep on walking.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“You used to believe like that too. You used to turn sticks into swords or dirty flip-flops into glass slippers. You climbed trees and made forts and thought being a doctor wasn’t out of reach. Nothing was out of reach. Then, somewhere along the way, you lost it.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Regardless of your age or station in life, it all comes down to one simple truth: you just have to start.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Not because of my words—those are cheap and untrustworthy. But because of my actions, which are expensive and trustworthy.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“What do you do when all the excuses you used to not chase your dream are gone? What do you do then?”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“People are mistaken when they think chasing your dream is a selfish thing to do. As if perhaps being average is an act of humility. As if perhaps wasting the talents you were given is proof that you’re a considerate individual.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“You’re just going to be a Starter. The starting line is the only line you completely control.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“As if perhaps joy is acceptable for rare moments on the weekend or surprising glimpses of sunsets while on vacation, but it has no real purpose in the real world.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“I learned a simple lesson about being awesome: always play to the size of your heart, not to the size of your audience. Awesome doesn’t let the crowd determine the size of the performance. Awesome gets up for two people or 200. Awesome writes great books even if no one is going to read them. Awesome sweeps the parts of store floors that no foot will ever touch. Awesome can’t help itself. Awesome has a huge heart. And that’s what it always plays to. The size of the crowd doesn’t matter. The applause of the audience doesn’t matter.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“(The truth is that real life-change and the joy of being who you are designed to be always results in selflessness, not selfishness.)”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“don’t build a park bench if you secretly love Frisbee.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Want to know how to be awesome at just about everything else too? It’s simple. Don’t be a jerk.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“You’ve got today, and today is all you need to start.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Average is so popular because average is familiar.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“In that moment, I learned a simple lesson about being awesome: always play to the size of your heart, not to the size of your audience. Awesome”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“You will work harder at something you love than at something you like. You will work harder than you have ever worked when you start chasing a dream. You will hustle and grind and sweat and push and pull. You will get up earlier and go to bed later. But that’s okay.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“No one pursuing a life of average was ever made fun of by other average people. But if you decide to travel the road to awesome, you will be.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“If you want help for your dream, start by helping someone else with their dream. If you want support for your hope, start by giving support to someone else’s hope. If you want encouragement as you work on your calling, start by encouraging other people. Giving support is often the best way to get it.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Learning from those before you is a dying art that can catapult you ahead in the land of Mastering.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

“Someone is going to hate what you do. That’s not a maybe. That’s a definite. And I don’t mean dislike. I mean hate. With energy and vitriol and a passion that surprises you.”
― Jon Acuff, quote from Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters

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Popular quotes

“Un gran escritor no es más que un escritor. La diferencia es de matiz, no de raíz. Todos los saltadores de altura saltan, digamos, dos metros. Si uno salta dos metros y cinco centímetros, ya es un gran deportista. No, no merece la pena fatigarse siquiera con la idea de llegar a ser un pobre gran escritor, un desdichado escritor genial. Coge los mejores libros escritos jamás. Apenas son algo mejores que los libros mediocres. Todos son fundamentalmente libros nada más. Te proporcionarán, cuando los leas, un placer estético algo más intenso. Como un café un poco más dulce. Los soltarás al cabo de treinta páginas para prepararte un bocadillo o para ir al baño. Los leerás a la vez que quién sabe qué novela policiaca. Dentro de unos miles de años también ellos serán tierra y polvo. En estas condiciones, que tú, un ser al que se le ha concedido la oportunidad disparatada de existir y de reflexionar sobre el mundo, te propongas llegar a ser tan solo un genio es humillante, es ínfimo. Es como si abandonaras todo y te internaras de nuevo en el bosque. En cada individuo hay posibilidades ante las cuales la ambición de ser el escritor más importante de todos los tiempos es simplemente denigrante por su simplicidad. Porque ¿qué milagro es importante comparado con el de existir y de saber que existes? De aquí hasta ser el hombre más rico, el más poderoso, el más ingenioso del mundo es como pasar de un billón a un billón uno, incluso menos. No, no quiero llegar a ser un gran escritor, quiero llegar a ser Todo. Sueño sin cesar con un creador que, a través de su arte, llegue a influir de verdad en la vida de las personas, de todas las personas, y después en la vida de las personas, de todas la personas, y después en la vida del universo, hasta las estrellas más lejanas, hasta el final del espacio y del tiempo. Y que a continuación sustituya al universo, que se convierta él mismo en el Mundo. Sólo así creo que podría un hombre, un artista, cumplir su misión. El resto es literatura, una colección de trucos mejor o peor dominados, trozos de papel emborronados con brea por los que nadie da un real, por muy geniales que sean esas líneas de signos que, dentro de poco ni siquiera serán comprendidas.”
― Mircea Cărtărescu, quote from Nostalgia

“She cried out into his kiss, her hands clawing his shoulders, adrift now in a pleasure that threatened to consume her. In her sexual lifetime she had never known anything like it. Had never tasted such a dark kiss, one that warned her he had no intention of making allowances for sensual inexperience. He was hungry. Needy. And she was the meal he craved.”
― Lora Leigh, quote from Elizabeth's Wolf

“In his suicide note, Kurt Cobain wrote, "It's better to burn out than to fade away." He was quoting a Neil Young song about Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols. When I was twenty-four, I interviewed John Lennon. I asked him about this sentiment, one that pervades rock and roll. He took strong, outraged exception to it. "It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out, " he said. "I worship people who survive. I'll take the living and the healthy.”
― David Sheff, quote from Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction

“Jack took the note:
My lord, Lady Kincaid announced she would be out this evening. When I asked where, she said she
was going “carousing.” That is a direct quote. Please advise. Devonsgate.”
― Karen Hawkins, quote from How to Abduct a Highland Lord

“I looked out across the Ocean, and determined to drown myself.
I was up to my chin when the shout came, and I will never forget it. Never. For it seems to me that any hope in life is such a shout; a voice that answers the silent place of despair. It is silence that most needs an answering — when I can no longer speak, hear me.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from The Stone Gods

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.