Jordan Peterson Quotes

“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.”

“People organize their brains with conversation. If they don't have anyone to tell their story to, they lose their minds. Like hoarders, they cannot unclutter themselves.”

“Perhaps you are overvaluing what you don’t have and undervaluing what you do.”

“Pet a cat when you encounter one in the street.”

“Stop saying those things that make you weak and ashamed. Say only those things that make you strong. Do only those things that you could speak of with honour.”

“Tell the truth. Or at least don’t lie.”

“The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power.

Status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity.”

“The things that pose the greatest threats to your survival are the most real things.”

“To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open.

It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order.

It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability, and accepting the end of the unconscious paradise of childhood, where finitude and mortality are only dimly comprehended.

It means willingly undertaking the sacrifices necessary to generate a productive and meaningful reality.”

“We require routine and tradition. That’s order. Order can become excessive, and that’s not good, but chaos can swamp us, so we drown— and that is also not good. We need to stay on the straight and narrow path.”

“You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act. You simply don’t know what you believe, before that. You are too complex to understand yourself.”

“You must determine where you are going in your life because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction. Random wandering will not move you forward.

It will instead disappoint and frustrate you and make you anxious and unhappy and hard to get along with (and then resentful, and then vengeful, and then worse).”