From his causational hypothesis that heavy food is good to his sin-eater monologue, Brennan Lee Mulligan continues to drop lines that have us questioning our existences or roaring in delight as someone finally puts perfectly sums our exact thoughts in a way we never realized possible. As many of you have asked, we’ve returned this week to share five more of his best quotes that have dropped since our last collection, which you can read here if you missed it.

These quotes will have you floating in existential dread or opening your third eye in Nihilistic self-empowerment. Enjoy and let us know in the comments below if you think we’ve missed one, or if there is another modern-day philosopher you think needs a list curated.

5) “Whatever moment you wake up, that’s the time to fight for the future.”- Brennan Lee Mulligan as Comfrey MacLeod (Cloudward, Ho!)

With everything going on, analysis paralysis has become a near constant for many people. Questions arise the second they think about the future that are less fantastical imaginings and more horrified calculations of how they can handle whatever crisis runs across their feed. Whether individual or international, the future can seem an impending tidal wave that doesn’t care about your plans or aspirations, aiming to knock you down and drag you out.

Not everybody learns to respond to terror with fight. It’s easy to freeze or fawn or flee, but it’s never late to acknowledge that first instinctual response and say, “Screw that. I’m fighting anyway.” And it’s never too late to do so. Whatever day you find the strength to do so, that’s when you fight. Give yourself some slack. Keep pushing your own limits and do whatever you can to keep fighting. The fight for the future you want isn’t over until you’re done fighting. The closest there is to an end bell is death, and hey, considering the amount of inspiration people draw from stories of the past, the good you do now might just keep on building long after you’re gone.

4) “Why do we tell stories? To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous. In Exandria, I don’t know that your story will long be known. I don’t know who will remain to tell it, but it did happen — and it did matter. And though the Calamity is here, because of you, it will not be here forever.” (Exandria Unlimited: Calamity – Fire and Ruin)

From the question that frames the whole of Calamity to our world in which it was told, this quote rings true. We’ve all heard the tried and true “If you’re going through hell, keep going” with various bits tied to the end, but the point is always that if you keep moving, keep fighting that there is an end in sight. Perhaps we can trace this one back to Dante’s Inferno and the entire Divine Comedy trilogy where passage through Hell into purgatory and beyond to heaven is a possibility, but Brennan touches on something beyond.

If you keep fighting, keep moving, it isn’t just you that you can pull out of the fire and ruin. In the most terrifying situations, there is still a glimmer of hope, and you have the capacity to do good and to work toward a place and world where that terror no longer exists. Even the smallest action can aid that effort. Your actions and choices matter. Because of what you decide to do today, the way things are now can be changed, and you have the power to ensure that change happens.

3) “Deep down in my heart is a belief fundamentally in luck. And when I say luck, I mean like an acknowledge of the forces beyond any one individual’s control and that many of those forces are not working under a common intelligence, and that it is possible to get lucky. And what that does to me on a moral level is I get to look at people that are undergoing tremendous hardship, chaos, catastrophe, disaster, and go, like, ‘not only there but for the grace of, in this case, fortune go I.’ But also, ‘this is not their fault.’ I don’t know how to be moral unless you can go ‘People are not responsible for every bad thing that’s ever happened to them, and conversely, people aren’t responsible for every good thing that’s ever happened to them.’” – Brennan Lee Mulligan (Brennan Lee Mulligan Eats His Last Meal)

While many may already know about Brennan’s good food philosophy, I’d argue that a good meal isn’t measured just on the weight or the muscles it causes to activate upon lifting alone. The best weight to measure in determining a good meal is the same one to determine a good conversation, and with two giants of introspection sitting down to feast upon Brennan’s culinary nostalgia, we were guaranteed some fantastic ponderings.

When Josh praised him for honing his skills as a dungeon master, Brennan credited it to luck, noting that he had no idea that his passion would pan out the way it did. However, beyond just not taking credit for his success, Brennan’s belief in luck paints a path of empathy and compassion that sets its sights on the almost predestination-based faith that wealthy and powerful individuals are somehow more deserving or smarter than those who are suffering.

2)  “There is nothing wrong with second place. Your best effort is all that anyone’s asking for. And if you give your best and you come in second, you come in third, you come in last, it’s not about winning or losing. It’s about giving it everything you’ve got.” – Brennan Lee Mulligan (Game Changer: Second Place)

From a war on participation trophies to adults who scream that second place is just the first loser, there’s a heavy expectation of success at all costs with anything less than #1 resulting in existential decay. Hustle culture makes it all the worse. How can you say you like painting / gaming / writing if you’re not treating it as a side hustle? If there’s no money involved — if there’s no competition — if you’re not sharing it on social media and comparing likes or shares or retweets, then what’s the point? It’s a fun little capitalist nightmare, and I’m sure Brennan would give us an earful on the monetization of hobbies destroying people’s mental health.

But at the end of the day, Brennan is a champion of doing your best. Does that mean he’s hypercompetitive and will memorize facts out of shame for not knowing them after getting a question wrong? Sure. That also means that as long as he’s trying, as long as he’s working to improve, he’s victorious. He might not win, but he’s done his best, and I think many of us would be happier if we could unshackle ourselves from the self-doubt and guilt that is likely in the voice of our parents or some other once exalted elder who told us that our good wasn’t good enough.

Doing your best isn’t 100% all the time. Nobody can sustain that on everything they’re doing, and some days your best won’t be as high as other days, and that’s okay. As long as you’re doing what you can and giving what you have to give, that is enough. You are enough.

1) “The lighting of the second candle does not diminish the first. Knowledge is something that, when you share it, there’s just more. There’s no scarcity and watching someone learn is one of life’s greatest joys.” – Brennan Lee Mulligan (How DnD Became a Career: Brennan Lee Mulligan’s College Journey)

For me, this one loops right back around to the beginning of this list. Comfrey MacLeod left a legacy in her granddaughter and her apprentice as well as all her friends and the lives of those she helped because knowledge is a light in the darkness which can only grow brighter the more it is shared. Evil hates education. Ignorance is bliss because it allows greed and selfishness to grow unchecked, so while it might take effort to pass the flame of knowledge one wick to another, the flame doesn’t diminish in its passing. In fact, it grows.

Do us a favor and share your favorite bit of knowledge in the comments! Let us know something you were excited to learn or about a moment when suddenly everything clicked. Do you have a favorite feed you follow for your daily dose of new information? Let us know, and if we missed a quote that you think we should have included, share them in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord and Facebook.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

New episodes of the Boss Rush Podcast release every Monday morning on YouTube and all major podcast applications like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Patreon supporters gain one week early access. 

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