Quotes from Jordan B. Peterson

the harshest statement ever attributed to Christ: "to those who have everything, more will be given; from those who have nothing, everything will be taken.

Ambition is often—and often purposefully—misidentified with the desire for power, and damned with faint praise, and denigrated, and punished.

no se trata en absoluto de la voluntad de creer en cosas que sabes perfectamente que son falsas. Eso sería ignorancia o ceguera voluntaria. Se trata, por el contrario, de darse cuenta de que las irracionalidades trágicas de la vida tienen que compensarse con un compromiso igualmente irracional con la bondad esencial del Ser.

I couldn't understand how belief systems could be so important to people that they were willing to risk the destruction of the world to protect them.

If and when the gods come to an agreement about their relative positions—more particularly, if they arrange themselves into a hierarchy—it means that peace has genuinely been established, because peace is the establishment of a shared hierarchy of divinity, of value. Thus, an eternal question emerges whenever people of different backgrounds are required to deal with one another on a relatively permanent basis: What do all gods share that makes them gods? What is God, in essence?

Después de todo, nuestras grandes teorías racionalistas -fascistas, pongamos por caso, o comunistas- han demostrado su inutilidad esencial en el espacio de unas pocas generaciones, a pesar de su naturaleza intelectualmente atractiva.

Partilhar não significa dar algo que valorizamos e não receber nada em troca. Isso é o que acham todas as crianças que se recusam a partilhar. Partilhar meios apropriadamente significa estabelecer um comércio. Uma criança que não partilha, que não negoceia, não pode ter amigos, porque ter amigos é uma forma de comércio.

We deserve some respect. You deserve some respect. You are important to other people, as much as to yourself. You have some vital role to play in the unfolding destiny of the world. You are, therefore, morally obliged to take care of yourself. You should take care of, help and be good to yourself the same way you would take care of, help and be good to someone you loved and valued.

respect for the rules, except when following those rules means disregarding or ignoring or remaining blind to an even higher moral principle

What you aim at, determines what you see.

the individual brave enough to voluntarily beard the serpent in his lair is most likely to gain access to the untold riches that exist in potential, awaiting us in the adventure of our life, away from security and what is currently known. Who dares wins*—if he does not perish.

Everyone is always broadcasting to everyone else their desire to encounter the ideal.

We compete for attention, personally, socially, and economically. No currency has a value that exceeds it. Children, adults, and societies wither on the vine in its absence. To have others attend to what you find important or interesting is to validate, first, the importance of what you are attending to, but second, and more crucially, to validate you as a respected center of conscious experience and contributor to the collective world.

That is a very difficult question. It is, on the one hand, the question of value: What is of the highest importance? It is, on the other hand, the question of sovereignty: What principle should rule?

unchaperoned, and left to our own untutored judgment, we are quick to aim low and worship qualities that are beneath us

Being is all the more "natural" the longer it has lasted.

Pointing is, as well, a crucial precursor to the development of language. To name something—to use the word for the thing—is essentially to point to it, to specify it against everything else, to isolate it for use individually and socially.

Si no hubieras decidido que lo que estás haciendo ahora es mejor que las alternativas, no lo estarías haciendo.

There is little more terrifying than the possibility that you could come to a crisis point in your life when you need every faculty you possess, at that moment, to make the decision properly, only to find you have pathologized yourself with deceit and can no longer rely on your own judgment. Good luck to you, because nothing but luck will then serve to save you.

RULE 1 STAND UP STRAIGHT WITH YOUR SHOULDERS BACK LOBSTERS— AND TERRITORY

If you are not communicating about anything that engages other people, then the value of your communication—even the value of your very presence—risks falling to zero.

When people wield authority, by contrast, they do so because of their competence—a competence that is spontaneously recognized and appreciated by others, and generally followed willingly, with a certain relief, and with the sense that justice is being served.

Como individuos medievales, ni siquiera necesitamos que la persona genere afecto. Con el ícono basta. Pagamos grandes sumas de dinero por prendas de ropa y objetos personales levados o creados por los famosos e infames de nuestro tiempo.

you say no, early in the cycle of oppression, and you mean what you say (which means you state your refusal in no uncertain terms and stand behind it), then the scope for oppression on the part of the oppressor will remain properly bounded and limited.