Following are some excerpts from 'The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma. If you like it, you may pick-up the book. If you are too busy to do so, the following quotes will in a way give an insight to what the book is about. Hope you enjoy it.


1) Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I have got hold for the moment, and I want to make it burn as bright as possible before handing it on to future generations. – George Bernard Shaw

2) Sure I am that, this day we are masters of our fate that the task, which has been set before us, is not above our strength; that it’s pangs and tools are not beyond my endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us. – Sir Winston Churchill

3) Real generosity towards the future consists in giving all to what is present. – Albert Camus

4) I have learnt that, everything happens for a reason. Every event has a purpose & every setback it’s lessons. I have realised that failure, whether of the personal, professional or even spiritual kind, is essential to personal expansion. It brings inner growth and a whole host of psychic rewards. Never regret your past. Rather, embrace it as the teacher that it is. – Yogi Krishnan in the book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma

5) Ultimately, life is all about choices. One’s destiny unfolds according to the choices one makes. – The main character Julian Mantle in the book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma

6) There is a huge difference between well-being and being well-off.

7) I am an artist at living – my work of art is my life. – Suzuki

8) Investing in yourselves is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.

9) Never overlook the power of simplicity. Yogi Krishnan in the book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma

10) Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens – Carl Jung

11) Most people live, - whether physically, intellectually or morally – in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of life to draw upon of which we do not dream. - William James

12) Worry drains the mind of much of its powers and sooner or later, it injures the soul.

13) Mind management is the essence of life management.

14) Most of us have the same raw material from the moments we take our first breath of air; what separates those people who achieve more than others or those that are happier than others is the way that they use and refine these raw materials.

15) Your I Can is more important that your I.Q. - Malika Chand in the book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma

16) There are no mistakes in life, only lessons.

17) Instead of becoming a prisoner of the past, become the architect of your future.

18) First of all, begin to live out the glory of your imagination, not your memory.

19) Dare to dream that you are more than the sum of your current circumstances.

20) I have had dreams, and I have had nightmares. I overcome the nightmares because of my dreams. – Jonas Salk

21) When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts breaks their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourselves in a new, grand and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourselves to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourselves to be. – Patanjali

22) The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. If you have become a negative thinker, this is because you have not cared for your mind and taken the time to train it to focus on the good.

23) The price of greatness is responsibility over each of your thoughts. – Sir Winston Churchill

24) Mind is truly like any other muscle in your body. Use it or lose it.

25) The boundaries of your life are merely creations of the self. – Sages of Sivana in the book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma

26) The less you focus on the end results, the quicker it will come. With one eye fixed at the destination, there is only one left to guide you along the journey.

27) Luck is nothing more than the marriage of preparation with opportunity.
28) Secret of happiness – find out what you truly love to do and then direct all your energy towards doing it.

29) Those who rise with the sun all have one thing in common. They have a purpose that fans the flames of their inner potential. They are driven by their priorities, but not in any unhealthy obsessive way.

30) Saying that you don’t have time to improve your thoughts and your life is like saying you don’t have time to stop for gas because you are too busy driving.

31) One must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind him to the fact that, each moment of life is a miracle – and a mystery.

32) Self-knowledge is the stepping-stone to self-mastery.

33) There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility lies is being superior to your former self.

34) Never get into the petty habit of measuring your self-worth against other people’s net-worth.

35) Every second you spend thinking about someone else’s dreams, you take time away from your own. - Yogi Krishnan in the book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma

36) Only those who seek, shall find.

37) People who study others are wise but, those who study themselves are enlightened.

38) The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

39) The secret of success is constancy of purpose. – Benjamin Disraeli

40) No man is free who is not a master of himself. – Epictetus

41) The only limits on your life are those you set yourselves. - Yogi Krishnan in the book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robin S. Sharma

42) Fear is nothing more than a mental monster you have created, a negative stream of consciousness.

43) Some books are meant to be tasted, some books are meant to be chewed and finally some books are meant to be swallowed whole.

44) To truly get the best out of a great book, you must study it, not just read it.

45) It is not what you will get out of the books that is so enriching – it is what the books get out of you that will ultimately change your life.

46) The only way to improve tomorrow is to know what you did wrong today.

47) Happiness comes through good judgment, good judgment comes through experience, and experience comes through bad judgment. But, there is something very wrong with making the same mistakes over and over again, day in & day out. This shows a complete lack of self-awareness, the very quality that separates humans from animals.

48) Pain is often the precursor to personal growth.

49) We don’t laugh because we are happy, we are happy because we laugh.

50) Sow a thought, you reap an action; Reap an action, you sow a habit; Sow a habit, you reap a character; Sow a character, you reap your destiny.

51) The truly enlightened people never seek to be like others. Rather, they seek to be superior to their former selves. Don’t race against others. Race against yourselves.

52) Bringing self-control and discipline in your life will also bring you a tremendous sense of freedom.

53) Most people have liberty. But too many people are also slaves to their impulses. They have grown reactive rather than proactive. Such people have liberty but, they lack freedom. Building will-power will offer one, more freedom. It gives control to live the life you have imagined rather than accepting the life that you have.

54) When you master your mind, you master your life.

55) Positive always overcomes negative.

56) When you control your thought, you control your mind. When you control your mind, you control your life. And once you reach the stage of being in total control of your life, you become the master of your destiny.

57) Complacency Kills.

58) I saw myself first as a 50 year old & then as a 60 year old man. Would I be stuck in the same job with the same people, facing the same struggles at that point of my life?

59) Wisdom without proper tools for its application is no wisdom at all.

60) I am more than I appear to be. All the world’s strength and powers rest inside me.

61) You have the power to be more than your environment.

62) Decide to do the things you know you should be doing rather than walking the path of least resistance.

63) By the time people figure out what they really want out of life and how to go about attaining it, it’s usually too late.

64) Failing to plan is planning to fail.

65) Eighty percent of the results you achieve in your life come from only twenty percent of the activities that occupy your time.

66) Enlightened people are priority driven.

67) The most productive people in this world have cultivated the habit of doing the things that less productive people don’t like doing, even though they too might not like doing them.

68) Too many people are dreaming of some magical rose garden on the horizon rather than enjoying the one growing in our back yard.

69) Act as if failure is impossible and your success is assured.

70) Life doesn’t always give you what you ask for, but it always gives you what you need.

71) All it takes are small steps in the direction of our dreams.

72) Do not be denied your destiny.


The End