Human behavior

How we think and feel

Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice.

– Thomas Paine

Wisdom lies in correctly discerning where we are free to mold reality to our desires and where we must accept the unaltered with tranquility.

– Seneca

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” - Rumi

Having a strong sense of controlling one’s life is a more dependable predictor of positive feelings of wellbeing than any of the objective conditions of life we have considered.

Morgan Housel • The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

To neglect any one of the three marriages is to impoverish them all, because they are not actually separate commitments but different expressions of the way each individual belongs to the world.

David Whyte • The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship

"Kierkegaard gives us some portrait sketches of the styles of denying possibility, or the lies of character-which is the same thing. He is intent on describing what we today call "inauthentic" men, men who avoid developing their own uniqueness; they follow out the styles of automatic and uncritical living in which they were conditioned as children.... See more

goodreads.com • Search Results for "Mark Twain"

human belief systems are good at absorbing contradictions into their thinking.

Richard Holloway • Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe

The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” ― James Baldwin