Peaceful Warrior (2006) - Quotes

The movie’s main characters: “Socrates” (Nick Nolte, right) and Dan Millman (Scott Mechlowicz, left)
Source of the photo: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/peaceful-warrior-2006

• I know more than you think.

■ And you think more than you know. But knowledge is not the same as wisdom. 

• Yeah? What’s the difference?

■ You know how to clean a windshield, right?

• Yeah.

■ Wisdom is doing it.

■ You can live a whole lifetime without ever being awake.

• Hey, Socrates, (if) you know so much, how come you’re working at a gas station?

■ This is a service station. We offer service. There’s no higher purpose.

• Than pumping gas?

■ Service to others.

• What?

■ Slow down. You might taste something.

• You sure got a lot of rules about stuff, don’t you?

■ Not rules. Thing I’ve learned form my own life experience. That’s why I’d say your eating is sloppy.

• Who cares?

■ You do. That’s the difference between us, Dan. You practice gymnastics. I practice everything.

■ Everyone tells you what to do, what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs.

• And let me guess. You want me to believe yours?

■ No. I want you to stop gathering information from outside of yourself and start gathering from the inside.

• Are you part of some cult or something?

■ People are afraid of what’s inside and that’s the only place they’ll ever going to find what they need.

People are not their thoughts. They think they are and it brings them all kinds of sadness.

The mind is just a reflex organ. It reacts to everything. Fills your head with millions of random thoughts a day. None of those thoughts reveal any more about you than a freckle does at the end of your nose.

• You’re out of your mind. You know that?

■ It’s taken a lifetime of practice.

There’s never nothing going on. Take out the trash, Dan. The trash is anything that is keeping you from the only thing that matters, this moment. Here. Now. And when you truly are in the here and now, you’ll be amazed at what can you do and how well you can do it.

Sometimes you have to lose your mind before you come to your senses.

• I mean, what kind of a warrior trains by sitting around scrubbing toilets?

■ When you become a warrior, you learn to meditate in every action.

• Scrubbing toilets?

■ Letting go of attachments. Like your pride. Giving up your addictions.

• Yeah, name one thing I’m addicted to.

■ Talking. Especially interrupting. Knowing everything, when in fact you know nothing.

All you have is now, Jack.

You ever hear of the healing power of a touch?

The habit is the problem. All you need to do is be conscious about your choices and responsible for your actions.

Every action has its price and its pleasure. Recognizing both sides, a warrior becomes realistic and responsible for his actions.

Death isn’t sad. The sad thing is most people don’t live at all.

■ A warrior does not give up what he loves, Dan. He finds the love in what he does.

• Look at me! Look at me. I have a metal rod in my leg.

■ A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He’s about absolute vulnerability. That’s the only true courage.

• What kind of training you think I could do? Huh? I just had an accident!

■ The accident is your training. Life is choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you’d like to be.

• Just ignore what happened to me?

■ A warrior acts, only a fool reacts.

• What if I can’t do it?

■ That's the future. Throw it out.

• Well, how would we start?

■ There is no starting or stopping, only doing.

• Three?

■ Three.

• Life has just three rules?

■ And you already know them.

• Paradox, humor and change.

■ Paradox.

• Life is a mystery. Don’t waste time trying to figure it out.

■ Humor.

• Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.

■ Change.

• Know that nothing stays the same.

The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination.

quotes from the movie Peaceful Warrior (2006) which was based on Dan Millman’s novel