Jordan Peterson Quotes Page 3

“We must each adopt as much responsibility as possible for individual life, society and the world. We must each tell the truth and repair what is in disrepair and break down and recreate what is old and outdated.”

“What is your friend: the things you know, or the things you don't know.

First of all, there's a lot more things you don't know. And second, the things you don't know is the birthplace of all your new knowledge!

So if you make the things you don't know your friend, rather than the things you know, well then you're always on a quest in a sense.

You're always looking for new information in the off chance that somebody who doesn't agree with you will tell you something you couldn't have figured out on your own!

It's a completely different way of looking at the world. It's the antithesis of opinionated.”

“What path are you on? Some of you is dark and some of you is light. Get rid of the darkness and then you’re on the path of light.

What will happen to you when you’re on the path of light? The best that can happen to you. It might not not be easy. Easy and best aren’t the same thing.”

“Without Christianity, and its emphasis on truth at all costs, science would never have come about.”

“Women have every reason to be as picky as they possibly can be, because they bear the brunt of the catastrophe of childbearing.”

“Women select men. That makes them nature, because nature is what selects. And you can say "Well it's only symbolic that women are nature", it's like no, it's not just symbolic.

The woman is the gatekeeper to reproductive success. And you can't get more like nature than that, in fact it's the very definition of nature.”

“Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.”

“You can do an awful lot by writing down what happened to you and thinking it through.”

“You can't change other people, but you can change yourself.”

“You cannot be protected from the things that frighten you and hurt you, but if you identify with the part of your being that is responsible for transformation, then you are always equal or more than the equal of the things that frighten you.”

“You have to be a monster to stay alive.”

“You have to treat yourself like you matter because if you don’t then you don’t take care of yourself and you become vengeful and cruel and you take it out on people around you and you are not a positive force.

None of that is good. You suffer more and so does everyone else around you.”

“You might be winning but you’re not growing, and growing might be the most important form of winning.”

“You should be better than you are, but it’s not because you’re worse than other people. It’s because you’re not everything you could be.”

“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.”

“You're going to pay a price for every bloody thing you do and everything you don't do. You don't get to choose to not pay a price. You get to choose which poison you're going to take. That's it.”

“You’re not supposed to be fighting dragons that aren’t in your way.”

“Always place your becoming above your current being.”

“Assume the person you are listening to knows something you don’t.”

“Be precise in your speech.”

“Do not bother children while they are skateboarding.”

“Don’t ever underestimate the destructive power of sins of omission.”

“Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities.

Strengthen the individual. Start with yourself. Take care with yourself. Define who you are. Refine your personality. Choose your destination and articulate your being.”

“Ideologies are substitutes for true knowledge, and ideologues are always dangerous when they come to power, because a simple-minded I-know-it-all approach is no match for the complexity of existence.”

“If you don’t say what you think then you kill your unborn self. When you have something to say, silence is a lie.”

“If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.”

“If your life is not what it could be, try telling the truth. If you cling desperately to an ideology, or wallow in nihilism, try telling the truth. If you feel weak and rejected, and desperate, and confused, try telling the truth.

In Paradise, everyone speaks the truth. That is what makes it Paradise. Tell the truth. Or, at least, don’t lie.”

“Intolerance of others’ views (no matter how ignorant or incoherent they may be) is not simply wrong; in a world where there is no right or wrong, it is worse: it is a sign you are embarrassingly unsophisticated or, possibly, dangerous.”

“It 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.”

“Nietzsche said that a man’s worth was determined by how much truth he could tolerate.”