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

“Scriassine studied me in turn. "You're not so dumb, you know. Generally I dislike intelligent women, maybe because they're not intelligent enough. They always want to prove to themselves, and to everyone else, how terribly smart they are. So all they do is talk and never understand anything. What struck me the first time I saw you was that way you have of keeping quiet.”
― Simone de Beauvoir, quote from The Mandarins

“That question became even more salient to me as I began my clinical work with troubled children. I soon found that the vast majority of my patients had lives filled with chaos, neglect and/or violence. Clearly, these children weren’t “bouncing back”—otherwise they wouldn’t have been taken to a child psychiatry clinic! They’d suffered trauma—such as being raped or witnessing murder—that would have had most psychiatrists considering the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), had they been adults with psychiatric problems. And yet these children were being treated as though their histories of trauma were irrelevant, and they’d “coincidentally” developed symptoms, such as depression or attention problems, that often required medication.”
― Bruce D. Perry, quote from The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook

“You can start with the whole ‘my lady’ thing,” Liv said, breaking her train of thought. “What’s the deal with that?” Kat’s face got almost as red as her hair. “It’s what they call plus-sized girls, all right? They, uh, have a thing for them. For us, I guess.” “Holy crap—Lock and Deep are curvy connoisseurs?” Liv raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?” “Seriously,” Kat said gloomily. “As in, they’d rather peruse the Lane Bryant catalogue than the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.” “But that’s great!” Sophie exclaimed, forgetting her own problems for a moment. “You’re always saying that guys in Tampa don’t appreciate curves.” “Yeah, well, neither do they want to get inside your head and never ever leave,” Kat snapped. “Talk about the first date from hell that won’t end.” “Okay,”
― Evangeline Anderson, quote from Hunted

“Well, get the coffer out," said Tobie roundly. "You find his clean clothes and I'll cut his hair round his cap and wash his ears out. Then, when we get to the Palazzo Medici, you imitate his voice and I'll sit him on my knee and move his arms up and down. Where is the problem?”
― Dorothy Dunnett, quote from The Spring of the Ram

“Isn't it lovely to be lovely me!”
― Nancy Mitford, quote from The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate

Interesting books

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.