You’re in the Identity Trap when you assume an individual will react to something as you would react or as you’ve seen someone else react.

Until you discover and accept yourself fully, you won’t have the conviction or the courage to be free. As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I still wanted money for the things it could buy. But I established limits beyond which I wouldn’t go to acquire wealth. I defined them clearly and they were compatible with what I knew about myself. So I never had to feel guilty when I wasn’t working.

Governments are subject to the same laws of economics as anyone else. The only “security” they offer is the promise to take care of you with other people’s money.

There are two Identity Traps: (1) the belief that you should be someone other than yourself; and (2) the assumption that others will do things in the way you would.

And so we come to the key question: If someone is being exploited, why does he permit it? Why does someone willingly put himself in a position where it appears to us that he’s being taken advantage of?

I’ve never found an exception to the rule that the sooner you pay a price, the less it costs you.

Don’t let uncertainty prevent you from enjoying what you have. But don’t let overconfidence lead you to act upon what you don’t have yet.

Ironically, I think dishonesty usually comes about as an attempt to avoid prices. A friend, Lynda Raff, once pointed out that lying is an attempt to get something for nothing. It’s the hope of being able to do something without the consequences that would naturally follow — the reactions of certain people.