Quotes from William B. Irvine

This might sound a bit silly, but to someone who has not lost his capacity for joy, the world is a wonderful place. To such a person, glasses are amazing; to everyone else, a glass is just a glass, and it is half empty to boot.

And why is self-discipline worth possessing? Because those who possess it have the ability to determine what they do with their life. Those who lack self-discipline will have the path they take through life determined by someone or something else, and as a result, there is a very real danger that they will mislive.

In particular, were I to acquire a new car, a fine wardrobe, a Rolex watch, and a bigger house, I am convinced that I would experience no more joy than I presently do—and might even experience less.

Stoic philosopher Seneca, about whom I will have much to say in this book, "He who studies with a philosopher should take away with him some one good thing every day: he should daily return home a sounder man, or on the way to become sounder.

easiest way for us to gain happiness is to learn how to want the things we already have.

Why do we care about what other people earn or own? Because we tend to regard life as an ongoing competition for social status. When

In a full-fledged case of desire, by way of contrast, a creature is able to form a mental representation of the thing it desires, compare the current state [sic] with the desired state, and initiate action to diminish these states. Only a creature with considerable brainpower will have these abilities.

the people whose views we will examine in the following pages—have unanimously drawn the conclusion that the best way—indeed, perhaps the only way—to attain lasting happiness is not to change the world around us or our place in it but to change ourselves.

To better understand the predicament of someone who is rational but emotionless, consider computers. Give a computer a program to run, and it will use flawless logic to execute it. But unless you give a computer a program to run, it will just sit there. Computers need a motivating force before they will do anything, and it is the job of the programmer to provide this motivating force. Damasio's patient was like an unprogrammed computer. His

Arthur Schopenhauer argued that the intellect doesn't rule the will. According to him, "the intellect gets to know the conclusions of the will only a posteriori and empirically."53 Indeed, the operation of the will is a "secret workshop" into which the intellect cannot penetrate.54 The intellect, he concludes, is a "mere tool in the service of the will.

Whenever you undertake an activity in which public failure is a possibility, you are likely to experience butterflies in your stomach. I mentioned above that since becoming a stoic, I have become a collector of insults. I have also become a collector of butterflies.

If you know why you believe something, you will not be upset by having that belief challenged.

N?u anh th?c s? mu?n thoát kh?i nh?ng th? làm cho anh phi?n mu?n, ?i?u anh ?ang c?n làm không ph?i là chuy?n ??n m?t n?i khác mà là tr? thành m?t con ng??i khác

In the words of Epicurus, "Nothing satisfies the man who is not satisfied with a little.

In the words of Epicurus, "Nothing satisfies the man who is not satisfied with a little."2

Success is very much like a drug: it makes you feel good; you don't know what you are missing until you experience it; once you experience it, you want more; and in your attempts to recapture that first high, you will have to resort to ever bigger "doses." And if success is like a drug, some drugs are like success: a cocaine high, I am told, very much resembles the rush of success.

The emotions are perfectly willing to listen to the intellect as long as the intellect isn't trying to impose its views but is merely trying to help the emotions get what they want.

In the words of Libet, "The initiation of the freely voluntary act appears to begin in the brain unconsciously, well before the person consciously knows he wants to act!

Psychologist Daniel M. Wegner has gone so far as to argue that conscious will is an illusion—that despite appearances, what causes my finger to rise is not my consciously willing that it rise but something else.