Are you looking for the most inspirational Naval Ravikant quotes of all time? Then you’ve come to the right place.
Naval Ravikant is widely known as an entrepreneur, angel investor, and deep thinker. He is the co-founder, chairman and former CEO AngelList and has invested in more than 100 companies including Twitter, Uber, and Yammer.
Naval is also renowned for his philosophical and insightful tweets and podcasts on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to personal development.
In this article, you’ll discover a collection of 100+ of the most inspiring and best Naval Ravikant quotes on persuasion, business, success, life, and much more (be sure to check out the FAQ section for some bonus content as well).
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Best Naval Ravikant quotes of all time
Here are some of the best Naval Ravikant quotes of all time to inspire you.
“Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.”
“Money isn’t how you motivate great people, it’s how you reward great people.”
“It’s good to be a small company early because… there’s less of an infrastructure to prevent early promotion.”
“Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.”
“You want to own equity if you can. If you don’t own equity in a business, your odds of making proper money are slim”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Fast, lift, spring, stretch, and meditate.
Build, sell, write, create, invest, and own.
Read, reflect, love, seek truth, and ignore society.
Make these habits. Say no to everything else.
Avoid debt, jail, addiction, disgrace, shortcuts, and media.
Relax. Victory is assured.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
They want to punish you for your speech because they can’t punish you for your thoughts.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
If you’re blaming the people from your past, then you’re implicitly criticizing who you are today.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
You get rewarded for unique knowledge, not for effort.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
You’re spending time to save money when you should be spending money to save time.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
When judgement becomes sufficiently refined, we call it taste.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Be conservative in your behavior, be liberal in your tolerance.
Naval Ravikant motivational quotes
Here are some of the best motivational Naval Ravikant quotes.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
We admire wisdom because it cannot be borrowed and it cannot be taught. It must be earned, as the product of experience and honest self-reflection.
“The world doesn’t always give what you want, but it often gives you what you need.”
“Spend your time doing only what you can uniquely do.”
“Any meeting with eight people sitting around at a conference table, nothing is getting done in that meeting. You are literally just dying one hour at a time.”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Start-ups don’t die when they run out of cash. They die when the founders run out of energy.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
In physical domains (diet, workouts), consistency is king.
In intellectual & social domains, wins are rare, sudden, and nonlinear – 99% of effort is “wasted”.
Once we find our ideal spouse, career, friends, we realize how much time we squandered by not moving on sooner.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Go big, because we all go home.
Inspirational Naval Ravikant quotes on success
Here are some inspirational Naval Ravikant quotes on success you need to know.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Algorithms for Success (2008)
Happiness = Health + Wealth + Good Relationships
Health = Exercise + Diet + Sleep
Exercise = High Intensity Resistance Training + Sports + Rest
Sleep = No Alarms + 8-9 Hours + Circadian Rhythms
Wealth = Income + Wealth*(Return on Investment)
Income = Accountability + Leverage + Specific Knowledge
Accountability = Personal Branding + Personal Platform + Taking Risk
Leverage = Capital + People + Intellectual Property
Specific Knowledge = Knowing how to do something society cannot yet easily train other people to do.
“Grind and sweat, toil and bleed, face the abyss. It’s all part of becoming and overnight success.”


Naval Ravikant
@naval
Success is the inevitable byproduct of learning. Not education.
“A happy, calm, and peaceful person will make better decisions. So if you want to operate at peak performance, you have to learn how to tame your mind.”
“You make your own luck if you stay at it long enough.”
“Being a founder is brutally difficult. It takes a long time and in the long run, the people who succeed are just the ones who persevere.”
“In a billion-dollar company, the employees aren’t working any harder than people in a million-dollar company. They’re just doing the right things.”
“As long as you can keep taking shots on goal, and you keep getting back up, eventually you’ll get through. Just stick at it.”
“Getting rich is about knowing what to do, who to do it with, and when to do it. It is much more about understanding than purely hard work. Yes, hard work matters, and you can’t skimp on it. But it has to be directed in the right way. If you don’t know yet what you should work on, the most important thing is to figure it out. You should not grind at a lot of hard work until you figure out what you should be working on.”
“If it entertains you now but will bore you someday, it’s a distraction. Keep looking.”
“Forty-hour work weeks are a relic of the Industrial Age. Knowledge workers function like athletes — train and sprint, then rest and reassess.”
“To the experts, what looks like hard work from the outside, is play from the inside.”
“What you do, who you do with, and how you do it are way more important than how hard you work.”
“If you want to be wealthy, spend your time relaxing, or earning. Outsource or ignore everything else.”
“Work as hard as you can. Even though what you work on and who you work with are more important.”
“All the real benefits in life come from compound interest.- relationship, money, habits — anything of importance.”
“All of the really successful people I know have a really strong action bias. They just do things.”
“Competing without software is like competing without electricity.”
“Whatever the geeks are doing in their garage on weekends is what the entire earth will be doing 20 years later as a mainstream thing.”
“If you’re good with computers, if you’re good at basic mathematics, if you’re good at writing, if you’re good at speaking, and if you like reading, you’re set for life.”
“You can escape competition through authenticity when you realize that no one can compete with you on being you. That would have been useless advice pre-internet. Post-internet, you can turn that into a career.”
“If you care about ethics in wealth creation, it is better to create your wealth using code and media as leverage because then those products are equally available to everybody as opposed to trying to create your wealth through labor or capital.”
“So, if you’re willing to bleed a little bit every day but in exchange, you’ll win big later, you will do better. That is, by the way, entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs bleed every day. They’re not making money, they’re losing money, they’re constantly stressed out, all the responsibility is upon them, but when they win they win big. On average they’ll make more.” – Naval Ravikant Quotes about Entrepreneurship
Naval Ravikant quotes on happiness & joy
Naval Ravikant talks a lot about living a happy life. Here are some of his best quotes on happiness.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
A person who needs to be happy will never be happy.
A person who needs to be at peace will never be at peace.
“One path to a happy life is to retain a sense of wonder.”
“A rational person can find peace by cultivating indifference to things outside their control.”
“Happiness is a state where nothing is missing”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
If you can’t be happy by yourself, you have nothing.
“If you’re smart, you should be able to figure out how to be happy. Otherwise, you’re not that smart.”
“Relax you’ll live longer and perform better.”
“That’s the fundamental delusion — that there is something out there that will make you happy forever.”
“Happiness is more about peace than it is about joy.” – Naval Ravikant Quotes on Joy
“True happiness comes out of peace. Peace comes out of many things, but it comes from fundamentally understanding yourself.”
“Nothing you do is going to matter that much in the long run. Don’t take yourself so seriously.”
“The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a skill that you develop and a choice that you make. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it.”
Naval Ravikant quotes on money
Below are some of the best Naval Ravikant quotes on money.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
“Money doesn’t buy happiness – it buys freedom.”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
The most powerful money makers are “individual brands”.
Naval Ravikant quotes on work
These quotes by Naval Ravikant on work will change how you think about the traditional way of working a normal job.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Compensation isn’t how you motivate someone to do great work. It’s how you reward and retain someone who can’t help but do great work.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
“Forty hour workweeks are a relic of the Industrial Age. Knowledge workers function like athletes — train and sprint, then rest and reassess.”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Practice your craft at the edge of your capability.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
If the value you create is not mainly a function of the hours you spend, then you’re likely in the right line of work.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Work is a set of things that you have to do, that you don’t want to do. Don’t work.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Any physical task that a drone can do, a personal drone will eventually do for you.
Any intellectual task that an AI can do, an AI agent will eventually do for you.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
If you work at an open minded organization, you’re the boss as long as you have the best ideas. Because if you have the best ideas, what you say, goes. Even if you’re at the bottom of the totem pole. Truth doesn’t care about status.
Naval Ravikant quotes about life
Here are some of the best Naval Ravikant quotes about life.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyle can’t fathom.
“One reason to meditate is to prove to yourself how little you actually need out of life.”
“Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.”
“In any situation in life, you only have three options. You always have three options. You can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it. What is not a good option is to sit around wishing you would change it but not changing it, wishing you would leave it but not leaving it, and not accepting it. It’s that struggle, that aversion, that is responsible for most of our misery. The phrase that I probably use the most to myself in my head is just one word: accept.”
“Ruminating on the past is largely a waste of time. It’s illusory.”
“The modern mind is overstimulated and the modern body is understimulated and overfed. Meditation, exercise, and fasting restore an ancient balance.”
“A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought – they must be earned.”
“If you want to be a philosopher-king first become a king then become a philosopher. Not first become a philosopher and then become a king.”
“Wealth buys your freedom” – Naval Ravikant Quotes on Wealth
“Status is your ranking in the social hierarchy.”
“Specialization is for insects. I don’t believe in this model of trying to focus your life on one thing. You’ve got one life just do everything you want.”
“Say no to more things to protect your time because it’s very precious. On your dying day, you will give everything you have for another day.”
“You want to be rich and anonymous, not poor and famous.”- Powerful Naval Ravikant Quotes
“The older the problem, the older the solution.”- Naval Ravikant Quotes on Life
“You have one life. You’re dead for tens of billions of years, and you’re going to be dead for tens of billions of years.”
“The reality is life is a single-player game. You’re born alone. You’re going to die alone. All of your interpretations are alone. All your memories are alone. You’re gone in three generations and nobody cares. Before you showed up, nobody cared. It’s all single-player.”
“Most of our suffering comes from avoidance.”
“If you have an unswerving desire to do something, then usually you’ll get it.”
“No one is going to value you more than you value yourself.”
“Sing the song that only you can sing, write the book that only you can write, build the product that only you can build… live the life that only you can live”
“No matter how high your bar is, raise it.”
Naval Ravikant quotes about health
Below you’ll find some of the top Naval Ravikant quotes about health.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
“When you’re healthy you have 10000 needs, but when you’re sick you only have one need”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
“One reason to meditate is to prove to yourself how little you actually need out of life.”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
If you understand evolution, you don’t need fitness and diet influencers.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
The harder the workout, the easier the day.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
The mind gives up before the body.
Top Naval Ravikant quotes on reading
Here are some of the top Naval Ravikant quotes on reading.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Read enough, and you become a connoisseur. Then you naturally gravitate towards theory, concepts, non-fiction.
“Read the books they want to ban.”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
“Books make for great friends, because the best thinkers of the last few thousand years tell you their nuggets of wisdom.”
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant quotes
“All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”
“The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner.”
“Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.”
Naval Ravikant quotes on love
Here are some of the most powerful Naval Ravikant quotes on love, people and relationships.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
We don’t love people for what they do for us, but rather for who they are.
Quotes by Naval Ravikant on freedom
“Once you’ve truly controlled your own fate, for better or for worse, you’ll never let anyone else tell you what to do.”
“On who he considers successful: to me, the real winners are the ones who step out of the game entirely, who don’t even play the game; who rise above it. Those are the people who have such internal mental and self-control and self-awareness that they need nothing from anybody else.”
“A taste of freedom can make you unemployable.”
“I think it’s really worth — whenever you can in life, if you have the choice — optimizing for independence rather than optimizing for pay.”
“Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep”
“I don’t care how rich you are. I don’t care whether you’re a top Wall Street banker. If somebody has to tell you when to be at work, what to wear and how to behave, you’re not a free person. You’re not actually rich.”
“Earn with your mind, not your time”
“Live below your means for freedom.”
“I don’t plan. I’m not a planner. I prefer to live in the moment and be free and to flow and to be happy.”
Powerful Naval Ravikant quotes on learning
Here are some powerful Naval Ravikant quotes on learning that will inspire you.”
“Knowledge is a skyscraper. You can take a shortcut with a fragile foundation of memorization, or build slowly upon a steel frame of understanding.”

Naval Ravikant
CEO at Aquisition.com
“The means of learning are abundant, it’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”
“Arm yourself with specific knowledge”
“Mentors won’t make you rich. Doctors won’t make you healthy. Nutritionists won’t make you slim. Teachers won’t make you smart. Gurus won’t make you calm. Trainers won’t make you fit. Ultimately, you have to take responsibility. Save yourself.”
“A lot of happiness is just being present.”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
“Competing with yourself” can be summarized as learning – because what is learning, other than improving who you were before?
“I don’t actually read a lot of books. I pick up a lot of books and only get through a few, which form the foundation of my knowledge.”
“Ideally you want to end up specializing in being you.”
“Instead of memorizing, understand the basics so you can derive answers.”
“My personal learning has been that the principal-agent problem drives so much in this world. It’s an incentives problem.”
“I would rather read the best hundred books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read every single book out there.”
“Your most important skill isn’t even what you majored in or even what you studied, it’s just knowing how to learn.”
“Free education is abundant, all over the Internet. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce. Cultivate that desire by reading what you want.”
“The genuine love for reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower.”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
The teacher is the lesson.
Naval Ravikant quotes on wealth building
Naval often speaks about building wealth. Here are some of his best quotes and insights on the topic.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Either create wealth or a passive income, or become a monk, or do what you love more than money.
What remains is taming the mind and body, seeking truth, creating love and art.
The world has nothing to offer you.
And you are free.
Be sure to also watch Naval’s in-depth video on “How to Get Rich”:
Famous Naval Ravikant quotes
Here are some more famous Naval Ravikant quotes you need to know:

Naval Ravikant
@naval
There is a highly creative state that lies between waking and sleeping.
“What the world craves is authenticity.”
“A car with a driver is the new horse and buggy.”
“The beginning of memory is the end of childhood.”
“Pick your one overwhelming desire. It’s okay to suffer over that one. But on all the other desires, let them go so you can be calm and peaceful and relaxed.”
“No amount of mediocre art adds up to good art.”
“The best founders I know listen to and read every one, but then they ignore everyone and make up their own mind.”
“You’re always making the best choice based on your current understanding. Don’t try to change the choice – change the understanding.”
“People who try to look smart by pointing out obvious exceptions actually signal the opposite.”
“We admire wisdom because it cannot be borrowed and it cannot be taught. It must be earned, as the product of experience and honest self-reflection.”
“Either have children or become a saint, because eventually, you have to ifnd something you love more than you love yourself.”
“Negotiations are won by whoever cares less.”
“When I find something really interesting, I’ll reflect on it, research it, and then when I’m bored of it, I’ll drop it or I’ll flip to another book.”
“I don’t have time is just saying it’s not a priority.”
“The best way to prepare for the future 20 years is to find something you love to do, to have a shot at being one of the best people in the world at it. Build an independent brand around it, with your name, not a company’s name or other people’s names around it. Try to make creative work, so you’ll stay interesting, stay ahead of the game.”
“You make your own luck if you stay at it long enough.”

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Don’t wish for people to be different, wish that they reveal themselves sooner.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
There are two people in you. The one who talks and the one who listens.
The one who talks is always changing. The one who listens is always the same.
You are the one who listens.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
The best brands are simple from afar, but sophisticated up close.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
The image of perfection is what keeps you from seeing it.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Everything is perfect, including the fact that we think it’s imperfect.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
If present you doesn’t want to do it now, future you won’t want to do it later.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Tune out society and its endless and noisy demands.

Naval Ravikant
@naval
Good investors don’t sell investment advice.
FAQs | Motivational Naval Ravikant quotes
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about Naval Ravikant and his famous quotes.
Who is Naval Ravikant?

Naval Ravikant is widely known as an entrepreneur, angel investor, and deep thinker. He is the co-founder, chairman and former CEO AngelList and has invested in more than 100 companies including Twitter, Uber, and Yammer. Naval is also renowned for his philosophical and insightful tweets and podcasts on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to personal development.
What is Naval Ravikant famous for?
Naval Ravikant is a renowned entrepreneur and investor, known for co-founding AngelList, a platform that connects startups with investors. He’s celebrated for his insights on startups, investing, and personal growth.
Naval’s philosophy on wealth, happiness, and personal freedom, shared through his podcast and Twitter, has garnered a wide following.
What is a famous Naval Ravikant quote?
A famous quote by Naval Ravikant is:
“All the benefits in life come from compound interest — money, relationships, habits — anything of importance.”
Naval Ravikant’s quote highlights how consistent effort in finance, relationships, and habits grows exponentially over time, like compound interest. It emphasizes the value of long-term investment in all aspects of life for significant rewards.
What books have Naval Ravikant published?
Naval Ravikant has not authored any books himself, but his thoughts and philosophy have been featured in various works by others.
The most notable compilation of his ideas is “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness” by Eric Jorgenson.
This book gathers Naval’s wisdom on building wealth and creating a life of happiness, drawing from his tweets, essays, and podcast appearances. It summarizes his views on success, happiness, and personal freedom, making his insights accessible to a broader audience.
What are 3 fun facts about Naval Ravikant?
Here are 3 fun facts about Naval Ravikant you need to know:
1. Wide-ranging knowledge: Naval Ravikant is known for his eclectic range of interests and knowledge, spanning from philosophy and psychology to economics and technology, reflecting a deep curiosity about the world and human nature.
2. Self-taught investor: Despite his massive success in Silicon Valley as an investor, Naval is largely self-taught. His insights into investing and building wealth are derived from personal experience and a eager reading habit, rather than formal education in finance.
3. Philosophical influencer: Beyond his entrepreneurial and investing achievements, Naval has become a significant philosophical voice on social media, especially on Twitter, where his concise, reflective tweets on life, happiness, and personal growth have attracted a large and dedicated following.
What are Naval Ravikant’s top 10 rules for success?
Naval Ravikant’s insights on success merge deep philosophical understanding with practical strategies.
Based on Naval’s valuable content around the web, here are his top 10 rules for success: ”
1. Seek wealth, not Money or status: Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep, offering freedom to pursue your life’s work.
2. Learn to love to read: Reading is the ultimate meta-skill that can accelerate your learning and understanding of the world.
3. Become the best at what you do: Specialize in a unique skill or knowledge area where you can be in the top percentile.
4. Build or buy equity in a business: Ownership in a business that generates wealth is crucial for financial independence.
5. Focus on long-term compounding: Invest in relationships, skills, and assets that compound over time.
6. Embrace specific knowledge: Cultivate knowledge and skills that cannot be taught but can only be learned through passion, dedication, and experience.
7. Play long-term games with long-term people: Surround yourself with people who think in long-term relationships, not short-term gains.
8. Rational optimism: Maintain a positive outlook but ground your decisions in rationality and reality.
9. Happiness is a choice: Prioritize mental and emotional well-being by understanding your mind and emotions, seeking internal peace and satisfaction.
10. Ethical wealth creation is possible: Create wealth without taking it from others; focus on creating value that benefits society.
Naval’s approach combines self-improvement, deep thinking, and smart money moves to aim for complete success. This means not just getting rich, but also growing wiser and living happily.
Final thoughts on the best Naval Ravikant quotes
I hope you enjoyed this ultimate collection of the best inspirational Naval Ravikant quotes to help you achieve success in your business and life.
“All the benefits in life come from compound interest — money, relationships, habits — anything of importance.

Naval Ravikant
CEO at Aquisition.com
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