But there is no scientific code of ethics to inherit the stabilizing role of religion. In the absence of clear rules and a moral compass, people are prone to nihilism, existential angst, misery, and indulging their instincts.

16

Your Commento.io account has been suspended. Go to the Commento dashboard to resolve this.

25

12 Rules for Life Jordan Peterson

argues that modern secularism and reliance on science has left a void in answers to important existential questions: What is the point of living? Why do bad things happen to good people? What am I supposed to do to make myself happier? Why does life have so much suffering? Without a clear guiding structure, you might feel directionless. You may be prone to nihilism (“there’s no point to anything

Self Help

book summary

Development

Get

Explore more quotes

Stand up straight with your shoulders back. There is a part of your brain that is constantly monitoring signals to figure out your position in society. Fix your posture to get others to treat you better, which will make you feel better and stand tall, thus kicking off a virtuous cycle.

Jordan Peterson

Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping. Many people are better at filling prescriptions for their dogs than themselves. Similarly, you may self-sabotage yourself daily – by not taking care of your health, not keeping promises you make to yourself.

Nietzsche: “He whose life has a why can

Make friends with people who want the best for you. Surround yourself with people who support you and genuinely want to see you succeed. You will push each other to greater heights; each person’s life improves as the others’ improve. They won’t tolerate your cynicism, they will punish you when you mistreat yourself

David Heath

Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. With mass media, it’s easy to think of yourself as miserably outclassed. Drill deeply into your discontent and understand what you want, and why. Define your goals. Transform your goals into something achievable today.

David Heath

Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them. Children test boundaries of behavior to learn the rules. As a parent, your purpose is to serve as a proxy for society. You must teach the child what is acceptable, and what isn’t. Children who receive no/incorrect feedback don't learn boundaries

David Heath

Put your house in order. It’s easy to blame the outside world, a group of people, or a specific person for your misfortunes. But before you do this, question – have you taken full advantage of every opportunity available to you? Are you doing anything you know is wrong? Stop it today.

David Heath

Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient. Doing good (preventing evil from happening, alleviating unnecessary suffering) provides your life with meaning. Meaning defeats existential angst; it gratifies your short-term impulses to achieve long-term goals; it makes your life worth living.

David Heath

Tell the truth. You may lie to others to get what you want; you may lie to yourself to feel better. But deep down you know it’s inconsistent with your beliefs, and you feel unsettled. You must develop your personal truth, and then act only in ways that are consistent with your personal truth.

David Heath

Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t. As a listener, you are helping the other person think. The most effective listening technique: summarize the person’s message. This forces you to genuinely understand what is being said; it distills the moral of the story, perhaps clarifying

David Heath

Be precise with your speech. Anxiety usually comes from the unknown. You don’t know what the problem is, or something vague seems really scary. Specificity turns chaos into a thing you can deal with.Why don’t you treat every other problem in your life with the same clarity? Be precise. What is wrong, exactly?

David Heath

Leave children alone when they are skateboarding. Modern parenting has gotten overprotective. Let kids alone when they push against authority, toughen up, and do seemingly dangerous things. They need it to grow.

David Heath

Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street. Life is tough. Good people get hurt. Suffering is pervasive. Notice little bits of everyday goodness that make existence tolerable, even justifiable. Watch the girl splash into a puddle. Enjoy a good coffee. Pet a cat when you run into it

David Heath

“He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.”

Nietzsche

Transform your goals into something achievable today. If it’s not within your control, look somewhere else. Let every day end a little better than it started. If you do this correctly, you’ll be unconcerned with other people, because you have plenty to do yourself.

David Heath

Act only in ways that your internal voice does not object to. Like a drop of sewage in a lake of champagne, a lie spoils all the truth it touches.

David Heath

Take responsibility for your own life.

David Heath

Walk the line between order and chaos, where life is stable enough but also unpredictable enough to provoke growth.

David Heath

The classic hero must give up something to be reborn and meet a great challenge.

David Heath

Acknowledge that life is suffering. Your goal is to make progress to avoid suffering.

David Heath

Typical overprotective adults avoid discussing suffering with their children, with the hope that it will protect them from it.

David Heath

If we lived properly, we would be resistant to the pains of existence and to the enticing lures of empty ideologies promising safety.

David Heath

The neurotransmitter serotonin is thought to be the internal mediator of social status. If you feel (or are) dominant in status, more serotonin circulates in your bloodstream. [Frat leaders have higher serotonin levels than members] Serotonin also seems to improve pro-social behavior and reduces aggression.

David Heath

The ability to respond with aggression and violence decreases the probability that actual aggression will become necessary.

David Heath

Peterson notes that PTSD in war comes not from horrific things happening to them, but as a result of witnessing their own violent behavior. This never saw their capacity for oppression and bullying, and now see history’s terrible perpetrators

David Heath

Hackers are breaking the systems for profit. Before, it was about intellectual curiosity and pursuit of knowledge and thrill, and now hacking is big business.

Kevin Mitnick

I always try to slip healthy things by my kids. I give them sweet potato French fries and fake chicken nuggets.

Elaine Irwin

We need more gay in the world! I really believe that.

Brad Goreski

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Miguel de Cervantes

As society changes, as politics change, as people change, certain songs still seem to resonate.

Beck

A man may own a ship but unless he is captain of a crew he goes where the ship goes.

Josephine Tey

I bought a selection of short, romantic fiction novels, studied them, decided that I had found a formula and then wrote a book that I figured was the perfect story. Thank goodness it was rejected.

Louise Brown

Write down 10 things you would do in your life if you had absolutely no fear. Then pick one of them and do it.

Steve Chandler

Whether you live in a city or a small town, and whether you drive a car, take the bus or ride a train, at some point in the day, everyone is a pedestrian.

Anthony Foxx

Everybody has something they love to do. Do that thing.

Michael Ian Black

I can, of course, think what I want, just like everyone else. I simply have to refrain from saying everything I think.

Margrethe II of Denmark

The feminine vanity case is the grave of masculine illusions.

Helen Rowland

I'm Israeli and gay.

Gideon Raff

The Emmy will have no effect on me, from the standpoint that you've still got to wash your bowl after breakfast.

Charles Keating

Unemployment in America today is too high. And part of the reason, unfortunately, is that many companies cannot fill the high-skilled jobs increasingly at risk of going overseas.

Michael Bloomberg

When I write, I don't really focus on duets or anything like that or whether I'm going to feature this or that rapper. I just focus on just making a great song and figure out the rest later.

John Legend

In any team sport, the best teams have consistency and chemistry.

Roger Staubach

Well, I am now convinced there is no kind of fear or anxiety anyone has to live with.

Ricky Williams

When men take pleasure in feeling their minds elevated with strong drink, and so indulge their appetite as to disorder their understandings, neglect their duty as members of a family or civil society, and cast off all regard to religion, their case is much to be pitied.

John Woolman

I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States, because of that terror of discrimination.

Josephine Baker

Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age.

H. L. Mencken

The end always doesn't justify the means you used to reach there.

Auliq Ice

There are many more want-to-be writers out there than good editors.

Stephen Ambrose

If I don't have anything to sacrifice, I don't have anything to gain. From the Bible I have learned if you want something good, you must sacrifice.

Catherine Ndereba