The 20 Best Quotes from Conservative Self-Help Legend Robert Ringer

If you ask me, perhaps the most underrated self-help writer of the last fifty years is real estate guru, entrepreneur, and professional boxer, Robert Ringer. He had a number of books that were good, but Looking Out for #1: How to Get from Where You Are Now to Where You Want to Be in Life and Winning through Intimidation: How to Be the Victor, Not the Victim, in Business and in Life were all-time classics. On the surface, both of those books appeared to be about real estate, but they were full of great stories and life lessons that didn’t require you to know a thing about real estate to appreciate.

After you read these quotes, you will also start to get an appreciation for Robert Ringer’s work.

20) “Opposites may attract, but they tend to end up strangling each other.”

19) “The desire to impress others is one of the worst forms of mental imprisonment.”

18) “Rational self-interest is not a problem, i.e., self-interest that does not involve forcible interference in the lives of others harms no one. The problem is the irrational self-interest of those who do not want you to act in your own best interest, who want to interfere in your life by pressuring you into doing what makes them happy.”

17) “Keep reminding yourself that you do not have a right to someone’s love, friendship, or respect. All these, and more, must be earned. If you choose to act contrary to this principle, the result is likely to be frustration and disappointment."

16) “The cost of procrastination is generally far greater than the cost of making mistakes.”

15) “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

14) “People who use bad breaks as excuses are often victims of the World-Owes-Me-a-Living Theory, which states: Anyone who believes that others—or, worse, 'the world'—owes them something are destined for failure and disappointment. Until a person cleanses this poisonous notion from his mind, he is unlikely to leave the starting gate, much less win the race.”

13) “Real happiness lies not in the achievement of goals, but in the striving towards goals. Striving implies action; achievement implies inertia or an end to the action that brought about the achievement. You have to have a purpose in life that does not fade away once you achieve a goal or reach a milestone.”

12) “The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”

11) “Life-complication Theory: Given a choice between an easy solution and a complicated one, the loser will usually opt to travel the complicated path. Don’t ignore a solution just because it’s simple!”

10) “Sooner or later, we learn this truth and come to understand that there is a price for everything in life. There's a price for working hard; there's a price for not working hard enough. There's a price for saving for the future; there's a price for spending all your money now. There's a price for having children; there's a price for not having children. There's a price for having friends; there's a price for being a loner. There's a price for taking the right action, there's a price for taking the wrong action, and yes, there's a price for taking no action at all. What this means is that you always have to give up something in order to get something in return. The empirical evidence suggests that even though most adults understand this principle on an intellectual level, they do not accept it on an emotional level. This results in actions that a rational person would describe as irrational, and irrational actions are sure to produce bad consequences.”

9) “There’s a basic human weakness inherent in all people which tempts them to bitterly want what they can’t have and ungratefully not want what is readily available to them.”

8) “If you want to become good at something, do it as often as possible. If you want to become an expert at it, do it every day.”

7) “With a written agreement you have a prayer; with a verbal agreement you have nothing but air.”

6) “The word exception is almost a misnomer because in the real world exceptions are rarely the nonrecurring phenomena that people would like to believe they are; i.e. exceptions have a tendency to become the rule. That's because exceptions are usually made to accommodate one's desire for instant gratification, and instant gratification is addictive. Isn't it true that there's always a special game, a special event, or a special dessert to tempt you? And isn't there always someone around to chide you, 'Aw c'mon, just this one time. What's the big deal? It's not going to kill you.'”

5) “If you push a man to the point where he feels like he's been challenged, then realities, values, and logic suddenly don't matter anymore.”

4) “The secret to bluffing is to not bluff.”

3) “...Consider the possibility that man is to God as a dog is to man, and a dog is to man as a flea is to a dog; i.e., the man, the dog, and the flea, who are merely tagging along for the ride, have neither the faintest idea as to why their masters do what they do nor the means to ever understand why. The question then becomes: Is God indifferent to us, as the dog is to the flea, or does He allow us to suffer for reasons we do not understand? When someone takes his dog to the veterinarian, the dog has no idea why his master allows pain to be inflicted on him. In the same way, perhaps, God doesn't always give us what we want, but He knows what we need.”

2) “The degree of complications and unhappiness in a person's life corresponds to the degree to which he dwells on the way he thinks the world ought to be rather than the way it really is.”

1) “...Perhaps only 45% of success is showing up, while another 45% of success is asking. Asking is the simplest, most efficient, and potentially most rewarding action a person can take. I've become such a believer in the power of asking that I am compelled to share with you my Ten Sacred Rules of Success:

Rule No. 1: Ask

Rule No. 2: Ask again.

Rule No. 3: Ask again.

Rule No. 4: Ask again.

Rule No. 5: Ask again.

Rule No. 6: Ask again.

Rule No. 7: Ask again.

Rule No. 8: Ask again.

Rule No. 9: Ask again.

Rule No. 10: Ask again.

I never cease to be amazed by how many times I've achieved results simply because I took the trouble (and in many cases, had the gall or audacity) to ask -- and kept asking until I got the ‘yes’ I was after.”

---