Jordan Peterson Quotes

“A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very, very dangerous man who has it under voluntary control.”

“Be grateful in spite of your suffering.”

“Beyond Good and Evil — to think of it as a book is a really foolish framework. Because this is what a book is when people think about a book:

It’s like a material entity. It’s eight inches high and six inches wide and two inches thick and weighs a pound, and it’s made out of paper and it's between two covers. And that’s the materialist’s a priori sort of axiomatic view of a book.

But Nietzsche’s 'Beyond Good and Evil' isn’t a book at all. It’s a series of bombs, and each sentence is a bomb. And each sentence blows things up that people didn’t even know exist.”

“Can you imagine yourself in 10 years if, instead of avoiding the things you know you should do, you actually did them every single day? That’s powerful.”

“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.”

“Dialogue is the pathway to truth.”

“Do not do things that you hate.”

“Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.”

“Don't avoid something frightening if it stands in your way.”

“Don’t be a slave to stupid rules.”

“Face the demands of life voluntarily. Respond to a challenge, instead of bracing for catastrophe.”

“Fix yourself; you'll do no harm.”

“Humility is recognition of personal insufficiency and the willingness to learn.”

“I don't think that you have any insight whatsoever into your capacity for good until you have some well-developed insight into your capacity for evil.”

“If you are not willing to be a fool, you can't become a master.”

“If you betray yourself, if you say untrue things, if you act out a lie, you weaken your character.”

“If you can't understand why someone is doing something, look at the consequences of their actions, whatever they might be, and then infer the motivations from their consequences.

For example if someone is making everyone around them miserable and you'd like to know why, their motive may simply be to make everyone around them miserable including themselves.”

“If you dare to do the most difficult thing you can conceptualize your life will work out better than it will if you do anything.”

“If you don’t say what you think then you kill your unborn self.”

“If you don’t stand your ground, then all that happens is people push you backwards.”

“If you fulfill your obligations everyday you don't need to worry about the future.”

“If you have a comprehensive explanation for everything then it decreases uncertainty and anxiety and reduces your cognitive load. And if you can use that simplifying algorithm to put yourself on the side of moral virtue then you’re constantly a good person with a minimum of effort.”

“If you haven’t done anything wrong, do not apologise.”

“If you’re going to be successful you need to be smart, conscientious, and tough.”

“Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that.”

“It took untold generations to get you where you are. A little gratitude might be in order.”

“It's a good thing, not a selfish thing, to choose people who are good for you.”

“It’s better to do something badly than to not do it at all.”

“Life is suffering. Love is the desire to see unnecessary suffering ameliorated.”

“Love is the desire to see unnecessary suffering ameliorated.”