A Master in the Art of Living

Today I came across a quote that was attributed to Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia (a company whose mission and culture is worth studying, btw). After a bit of digging, I discovered that the quote was actually said by François-René de Chateaubriand, a French philosopher who founded Romanticism in French literature. I could reflect further on the quote and the ideas therein, but I think it stands nicely on its own.

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”

François-René de Chateaubriand