One night, the authors watched David Letterman ask rock musician Warren Zevon — diagnosed with terminal cancer at 55 — what he had learned about life and death. Zevon's answer: "Enjoy every sandwich." That three-word phrase, refreshingly simple yet somehow profound, launched a years-long search for the wisest, funniest, most honest rules human beings have ever offered each other about how to live. This book is the result.
Pulled from poets and poker players, presidents and painters, comedians and scientists, philosophers and baseball managers, these 618 rules are not fortune-cookie platitudes. They are hard-won, frequently surprising, often hilarious distillations of real experience — the kind of wisdom people share when they stop pretending and say what they actually think.
Each rule stands alone. There is no overarching theory of life here, no seven-step program. The voices often contradict each other. That is precisely the point: the fullest picture of how to live is assembled from many angles, across many centuries, by many kinds of people who had nothing in common except the fact that they had lived.
"Enjoy every sandwich."
Warren Zevon — musician, speaking to David Letterman after a terminal diagnosis — the quote that inspired this entire book
On Courage & Beginning
The first 20 rules open with a challenge: stop waiting for permission. Life is not something that happens to you — it is something you participate in, awkwardly and imperfectly, starting now. The fear of getting it wrong, it turns out, is the only thing that can truly ruin it.
Rule No. 1
"The first and great commandment is: Don't let them scare you."
Elmer Daviswriter & broadcaster
Rule No. 2
"Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."
Kurt Vonnegutwriter
Rule No. 6
"Don't panic."
Douglas Adamswriter
Rule No. 9
"Do stuff you will enjoy thinking about and telling stories about for many years to come. Do stuff you will want to brag about."
Rachel Maddowjournalist & commentator
Rule No. 12
"Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you."
Annie Dillardwriter
Rule No. 27
"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."
Arthur Ashetennis player
On Authenticity & Identity
A recurring theme across the 618 rules is the immense cost of performing a self you are not. The pose, the mask, the careful management of how others see you — these things are exhausting, and they fail eventually. The rules on identity are some of the most direct in the book.
Rule No. 34
"Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?"
Fanny Bricecomedian
Rule No. 48
"Follow your passion, stay true to yourself. Never follow anyone else's path, unless you're in the woods and you're lost and you see a path, and by all means you should follow that."
Ellen DeGenerescomedian & host
Rule No. 64
"Don't take any of it too seriously."
Chersinger & actress
Rule No. 89
"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else."
Margaret Meadanthropologist
Rule No. 143
"Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?"
Edith Sitwellwriter
Rule No. 190
"Life is one big contradiction, and you'll drive yourself crazy if you try to figure it out. So don't."
Diane Halstead
On Holding Grudges & Moving On
Some of the wisest rules about letting go
Rule No. 70
"Don't carry a grudge. While you're carrying the grudge, the other guy's out dancing."
Buddy Hackettcomedian
Rule No. 385
"Never regret. If it's good, it's wonderful. If it's bad, it's experience."
Victoria Holtwriter
Rule No. 23
"Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure."
Oprah Winfreymedia magnate
Rule No. 183
"Never pay any attention to what critics say. Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic!"
Jean Sibeliuscomposer
On Work & Effort
The rules on work are interesting precisely because they refuse to be motivational posters. Several are blunt warnings. A few are purely practical. One is from a first-grade classroom. What they share is a refusal to dress work up as something other than what it is — hard, necessary, and occasionally the source of your deepest satisfaction.
"You can't build a reputation on what you intend to do." — Liz Smith, gossip columnist (Rule No. 43)
Rule No. 29
"Work hard each day."
"Rainbow Rule"posted in Mrs. Foltz's first-grade class, Waterboro Elementary, Maine
Rule No. 35
"Better to do a little well than a great deal badly."
Socratesphilosopher
Rule No. 42
"If you wish to be a writer, write."
Epictetusphilosopher
Rule No. 46
"If you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you are."
Abraham Lincolnstatesman
Rule No. 142
"Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly, I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."
Theodore Rooseveltstatesman
Rule No. 289
"Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done."
Paul Hawkenentrepreneur
On Risk, Failure & Leaping
Rule No. 44
"Live as if you were already living for a second time and as if you had made the mistakes you are about to make now."
Viktor Franklpsychiatrist & author
Rule No. 67
"Do not be concerned with escaping safely."
Bruce Leemartial arts master
Rule No. 186
"When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap."
Cynthia Heimelwriter & humorist
Rule No. 144
"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash."
George S. Pattongeneral
Rule No. 567
"Learn to fail with pride — and do so fast and cleanly. Maximize trial and error — by mastering the error part."
Nassim Nicholas Talebtrader & writer
Rule No. 388
"Fall down, make a mess, break something occasionally. And remember that the story is never over."
Conan O'Brienhost & comedian
On Joy, Laughter & Living Fully
"Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce."
Molly Ivins — writer & journalist (Rule No. 61)
Laugh
Play
Create
Wonder
Dance
Connect
Rest
Enjoy every sandwich
Rule No. 14
"Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
Wendell Berrywriter & farmer
Rule No. 21
"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."
E. B. Whitewriter
Rule No. 65
"Life is short — avoid causing yawns."
Elinor Glynwriter
Rule No. 68
"You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain."
Leo Durocherbaseball manager
Rule No. 384
"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
Charles M. Schulzcartoonist
Rule No. 390
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge."
Bertrand Russellphilosopher
On Wisdom & The Long View
Rule No. 5
"Do not wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day."
Albert Camuswriter
Rule No. 485
"Never hurry and never worry."
E. B. Whitewriter
Rule No. 486
"It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done."
Vincent van Goghpainter
Rule No. 284
"Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!"
Andrew Carnegieindustrialist & philanthropist
Rule No. 383
"Either move or be moved."
Colin Powellgeneral & statesman
Rule No. 484
"Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night."
William Blakepoet
"The only dream worth having is to live
while you're alive."
Arundhati Roy said that. It is Rule No. 10 of 618.
That is the whole book, really — 618 different ways of saying the same unlikely thing: that you are alive right now, and that this is the thing to attend to. Not later. Not once you've figured it out. Now.
Enjoy every sandwich.