Quotes by Jordan Peterson

"

It's not exactly about people fighting for what they believe in. Instead, they fight to maintain harmony between their beliefs, expectations, and desires.

"

Let's compare ourselves to our own past, not to the present of others!

"

Parents who don't take responsibility for discipline think they can simply avoid the necessary conflict that comes with good parenting. They avoid being the main villain (in the short term), but they absolutely fail to save or protect their child from fear and pain. On the contrary: the harsh and critical wider social world imposes much greater conflict and punishment on an attentive parent. We can discipline our child ourselves, or we can transfer the responsibility to the strict, cruel, judgmental world - and we never mistake this latter decision for love!

"

If we do not reveal ourselves to others, we cannot reveal ourselves to ourselves. It doesn't just mean suppressing the self, although that's part of the deck. It means that everything we could become will never unfold from us out of necessity.

"

Saying no to our boss, spouse, or mother when we need to say no changes us into someone who can say no when the need arises. But if we say yes when we should, we become someone who can only nod, even when it's obvious that it's time to say no. If you've ever wondered how perfectly ordinary, ordinary people were capable of the horrors of the Gulag guards, we now know the answer. When it was necessary for someone to say no, no one was able to.

"

If we devote everything totally, blindly and deliberately to achieving one goal, we will never know if another goal would serve us and the world better. This is what we sacrifice if we don't tell the truth.

"

A big lie requires a small lie first.

"

When a lie grows big enough, it poisons the whole world.

"

Even if we don't believe in brick walls, we will get hurt if we run headlong into one. Then of course we curse reality for creating the wall.

"

When we tell the truth, we create the most livable reality. The edifices of truth endure for millennia. Truth is the food and clothing of the poor, the wealth and security of nations.

"

Truth reduces man's terrible complexity to his simple words, and thereby makes him a friend instead of an enemy.

"

Psychotherapy is a real conversation. Real conversation is discovery, expression, and strategy building. When we have a real conversation, we listen and talk - but mostly we listen. Listening means paying attention. It's amazing what people share with us if we simply listen to them. Sometimes, if we listen, they even tell us what is wrong with them. Sometimes even how I want to remedy it. And sometimes it helps us to fix our own problems.

"

Let's listen to ourselves and those who speak! Thus, our wisdom does not consist of what we already know, but of the continuous search for knowledge, which is the highest form of wisdom.

"

Culture is, of course, an oppressive system. It always has been. This is the basic, universal existential reality.

"

All our words are a gift from our ancestors. Every thought we have has been thought of by someone smarter than us.

"

A happy journey is perhaps better than a successful arrival.

"

Even on a sinking ship, the one who climbs into a lifeboat can be happy! And who knows where life will take you in the future?

"

The common cultural system consolidates human interactions and also serves as a system of values.

"

Without value, there is no meaning. However, a conflict may arise between the value systems. Thus we are forever wedged between the unbreakable rock and the hardest place: the loss of group-centered faith makes life chaotic, unfortunate, unbearable; its presence, on the other hand, makes conflict with other groups inevitable.

"

Dreams illuminate the dark places where reason has not yet reached.

"

Some people are terrorized because they CANNOT fight back. But it also happens just as often that someone is terrorized because they are NOT WILLING to fight back.

"

Maybe we are losers, maybe not - but even if we are, we don't have to continue as losers.

"

Doctors and pharmacists tend to blame (...) patients for their disobedience, inaction and error. They say you can lead a horse to water, but if he won't drink... Psychologists take a dark view of such judgement. We assume that if the patient does not follow the doctor's advice, it is the doctor's fault, not the patient's. We believe that it is the doctor's responsibility to give advice that will be followed, to recommend an intervention that will be respected, to work with the patient until the desired effect is achieved, and to check the result to make sure everything went well.

"

What we subjectively experience is much more like a novel or movie than a scientific description of physical reality.

"

Order is the place and time where the often invisible fundamental truths by which we live organize our experiences and actions so that what is supposed to happen happens. Chaos is a new place and time that appears when an unexpected tragedy occurs or evil reveals its chilling face.

"

Sometimes (...) half a gift is worse than nothing.

"

Beauty puts ugliness to shame. Strength shames the weak. Death shames the living - and the ideal puts all of us to shame. That's why we fear it, despise it - even hate it.

"

Maybe man should never have existed. Perhaps the world should be cleansed of human presence so that Being and consciousness can return to the innocent brutality of animals. I believe that a person who claims to have never wished for such a thing has either looked back at their memories or faced their darkest desires.

"

Not everyone is a victim who has failed, and not everyone wants to climb out of the pile - although many do and many succeed.

"

Friendship is a mutual agreement. We are not morally obligated to support someone who makes the world a worse place. On the contrary. We should choose friends who want good, not bad. It is good and not selfish to choose people who are good for us. It is right and commendable to associate with people whose lives are made better if they see that our lives are better.

"

No matter how good we are at something, no matter how we value our own achievements, we always seem incompetent compared to someone else.

"

If we are constantly worried about hurting other people's feelings and undermining the fabric of society, we will never come up with our idea.