12 Rules for Life

the world of experience has primal constituents, as well. These are the necessary elements whose interactions define drama and fiction. One of these is chaos. Another is order. The third (as there are three) is the process that mediates between the two, which appears identical to what modern people call consciousness.

of the adolescent ethos of the 1960s, a decade whose excesses led to a general denigration of adulthood, an unthinking disbelief in the existence of competent power, and the inability to distinguish between the chaos of immaturity and responsible freedom.

Before you can articulate your own standards of value, you must see yourself as a stranger—and then you must get to know yourself.

Why refuse to specify, when specifying the problem would enable its solution? Because to specify the problem is to admit that it exists.

It’s part of an evil triad: arrogance, deceit, and resentment. Nothing causes more harm than this underworld Trinity.

the capacity of children to perceive or care about long-term consequences is very limited. Parents are the arbiters of society. They teach children how to behave so that other people will be able to interact meaningfully and productively with them.

had more to do with developing character in the face of suffering than with happiness.

chaos is possibility itself,

meaning