The School of Life Dictionary

The desire for fame has its roots in the experience of neglect and injury. No one would want to be famous who hadn’t also, somewhere in the past, been made to feel insignificant.

akrasia,

¶ Akrasia A central problem of our minds is that

Today, you may be short of cash, low on prestige and bruised by rejection. But, it is insinuated, these are transient troubles. Hard work, a positive attitude and bright ideas have every chance of breaking the deadlocks in due course. It is just a question of willpower. Modernity never ceases to emphasise that success could, somehow, be ours one da

In the end, it is not darkness that dooms us, but the wrong sort of hope.

We typically think of anger as a dark and pessimistic state of mind. But behind anger lies a surprising emotion: optimism. Beneath their ranting, the angry are possessed of some recklessly optimistic notions of how life might go. They are not merely in a destructive fury; they are in the grip of hope.

we can be consoled by a bitter truth: we have no better options, for the conditions of existence are intrinsically rather than accidentally frustrating.

To overcome addiction, we need to lose our fear of our minds. We need a collective sense of safety around confronting loss, humiliation, sexual desire and sadness.

we know so much in theory about how we should behave, but engage so little with our knowledge in our day-to-day conduct.