Quotes from Jordan B. Peterson

If you stand still you fall backwards, You cannot stand still, because the world moves away from you if you stand still. And there is no stasis. Only backwards.

every single voluntarily unprocessed and uncomprehended and ignored reason for marital failure will compound and conspire and will then plague that betrayed and self-betrayed woman for the rest of her life.

Your nervous system responds in an entirely different manner when you face the demands of life voluntarily. You respond to a challenge, instead of bracing for a catastrophe.

That same brutal principle of unequal distribution applies outside the financial domain—indeed, anywhere that creative production is required. The majority of scientific papers are published by a very small group of scientists.

Expedience is the following of blind impulse. It's short-term gain. It's narrow, and selfish. It lies to get its way. It takes nothing into account. It's immature and irresponsible. Meaning is its mature replacement.

You look at the world through a story. You can't help it.

But not thinking about something you don't want to know about doesn't make it go away. You

When the medication causes the disease, a positive feedback loop has been established.

Why refuse to specify, when specifying the problem would enable its solution? Because to specify the problem is to admit that it exists. Because to specify the problem is to allow yourself to know what you want, say, from friend or lover—and then you will know, precisely and cleanly, when you don't get it, and that will hurt, sharply and specifically.

We'll start our analysis with a truism, stark, self-evident and understated: Sometimes things do not go well.

Consider then that the alleviation of unnecessary pain and suffering is a good. Make that an axiom: to the best of my ability I will act in a manner that leads to the alleviation of unnecessary pain and suffering.

So, if you are respectful of the rule, and conscious of its importance, and realize that it serves as a bulwark against the chaos of the unknown, and you still decide to break it, carefully, because the particularities of the circumstances demand it – well, then, more power to you. If you are just a careless, ignorant, antisocial narcissist instead, however, then look out. You break a rule at your peril, whether you know it or not.

What will you write with your pen of light?

symbolizes Shakti, the feminine; the upward triangle, Shiva, the masculine. The two components are known as om and hrim in Sanskrit. Remarkable examples of conceptual parallelism.

Millennials, often told they have received the finest education available anywhere, have actually suffered a form of serious intellectual and moral neglect.

To straddle that fundamental duality is to be balanced: to have one foot firmly planted in order and security, and the other in chaos, possibility, growth and adventure. When life suddenly reveals itself as intense, gripping and meaningful; when time passes and you're so engrossed in what you're doing you don't notice—it is there and then that you are located precisely on the border between order and chaos. The

If existence is good, then the clearest and cleanest and most correct relationship with it is also good.

is my firm belief that the best way to fix the world—a handyman's dream, if ever there was one—is to fix yourself, as we discussed in Rule 6.

How do you know who you are? After all, you are complex beyond your own understanding; more complex than anything else that exists, excepting other people; complex beyond belief.

If you take the low road than that wins and it gets a little stronger because everything that wins neurologically gets a little stronger.

A long period of unfreedom—adherence to a singular interpretive structure—is necessary for the development of a free mind.

An inauthentic person continues to perceive and act in ways his own experience has demonstrated false. He does not speak with his own voice.

Why would someone buy prescription medication for his dog, and then so carefully administer it, when he would not do the same for himself? Now you have the answer, derived from one of the foundational texts of mankind. Why should anyone take care of anything as naked, ugly, ashamed, frightened, worthless, cowardly, resentful, defensive and accusatory as a descendant of Adam? Even if that thing, that being, is himself?

People who live by the same code are rendered mutually predictable to one another. They act in keeping with each other's expectations and desires. They can cooperate. They can even compete peacefully, because everyone knows what to expect from everyone else. A shared belief system, partly psychological, partly acted out, simplifies everyone—in their own eyes, and in the eyes of others.