88 Important Truths I've Learned About Life
- Every problem you have is your responsibility, regardless of who caused it.
- Managing one's wants is the most powerful skill a person can learn.
- Whenever you're worried about what others will think of you, you're really just worried about what you'll think of you.
- You can't change other people, and it's rude to try.
- It is a hundred times more difficult to burn calories than to refrain from consuming them in the first place.
- If you're talking to someone you don't know well, you may be talking to someone who knows way more about whatever you're talking about than you do.
- The cheapest and most expensive models are usually both bad deals.
- Everyone likes somebody who gets to the point quickly.
- Bad moods will come and go your whole life, and trying to force them away makes them run deeper and last longer.
- Children are remarkably honest creatures until we teach them not to be.
- If everyone in the TV show you're watching is good-looking, it's not worth watching.
- Yelling always makes things worse.
- You never have to deal with more than one moment at a time.
- If you never doubt your beliefs, then you're wrong a lot.
- Nobody has it all figured out.
- Cynicism is far too easy to be useful.
- Every passing face on the street represents a story every bit as compelling and complicated as yours.
- Whenever you hate something, it hates you back: people, situations and inanimate objects alike.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson's works alone can teach you everything you need to know about living with grace and happiness.
- People embellish everything, as a rule.
- Anger reveals weakness of character, violence even more so.
- Humans cannot destroy the planet, but we can destroy its capacity to keep us alive. And we are.
- When people are uncomfortable with the present moment, they fidget with their hands or their minds. Watch and see.
- Those who complain the most, accomplish the least.
- Putting something off makes it instantly harder and scarier.
- Credit card debt devours souls.
- Nobody knows more than a minuscule fraction of what's going on in the world. It's just way too big for any one person to know it well.
- Most of what we see is only what we think about what we see.
- A person who is unafraid to present a candid version of herself to the world is as rare as diamonds.
- The most common addiction in the world is the draw of comfort. It wrecks dreams and breaks people.
- If what you're doing feels perfectly safe, there is probably a better course of action.
- The greatest innovation in the history of humankind is language.
- Blame is the favorite passtime of those who dislike responsibility.
- Everyone you meet is better than you at something.
- Proof is nothing but a collection of opinions that match your own.
- Knowledge is belief, nothing more.
- Indulging your desires is not self-love.
- What makes human beings different from animals is that animals can be themselves with ease.
- Self-examination is the only path out of misery.
- Whoever you are, you will die. To know and understand that means you are alive.
- Revenge is for the petty and irresponsible.
- Getting truly organized can vastly improve anyone's life.
- Almost every cliché contains a truth so profound that people have been compelled to repeat it until it makes you roll your eyes. But the wisdom is still in there.
- People cause suffering when they are suffering themselves. Alleviating their suffering will help them not hurt others.
- High quality is worth any quantity, in possessions, friends and experiences.
- The world would be a better place if everyone read National Geographic.
- If you aren't happy single, you won't be happy in a relationship.
- Even if it costs no money, nothing is free if it takes time.
- Emotions exist to make us strongly biased towards or against something. This hinders as often as it helps.
- Addiction is a much greater problem in society than it's made out to be. It's present in every person in various forms, but usually we call it something else.
- “Gut feeling” is not just a euphemism. Tension in the abdomen speaks volumes about how you truly feel about something, beyond all arguments and rationales.
- Posture and dress change profoundly how you feel about yourself and how others feel about you, like it or not.
- Everyone thinks they're an above average driver.
- The urge to punish others has much more to do with venting frustration than correcting behavior.
- By default, people think far too much.
- If anything is worth splurging on, it's a high-quality mattress. You'll spend a third of your life using it.
- There is nothing worse than having no friends.
- To write a person off as worthless is an act of great violence.
- Try as we might to be otherwise, we are all hypocrites.
- Justice is a human invention which is in reality rarely achievable, but many will not hesitate to destroy lives demanding it.
- Kids will usually understand exactly what you mean if you keep it to one or two short sentences.
- Stuff that's on sale usually has an annoying downside.
- Casual swearing makes people sound dumb.
- Words are immensely powerful. One cruel remark can wound someone for life.
- It's easy to make someone's day just by being uncommonly pleasant to them.
- Most of what children learn from their parents isn't taught on purpose.
- The secret ingredient is usually butter, in obscene amounts.
- It is worth re-trying foods that you didn't like at first.
- Problems, when they arise, are rarely as painful as the experience of fearing them.
- Nothing ever happens exactly like you pictured it.
- North Americans are generally terrible at accepting compliments and offers of help.
- There are not enough women in positions of power. The world has suffered from this deficit for a long time.
- When you break promises to yourself, you feel terrible. When you make a habit of it, you begin to hate yourself.
- A good nine out of ten bad things I've worried about never happened. A good nine out of ten bad things that did happen never occurred to me to worry about.
- You can't hide a bad mood from people who know you well, but you can always be polite.
- Sometimes you have to remove certain people from your life, even if they're family.
- Anyone can be calmed in an instant by looking at the ocean or the stars.
- There is no point finishing a book you aren't enjoying. Life is too short for that. Swallow your pride and put it down for good, unfinished.
- There is no correlation between the price of a brand of batteries and how long they last.
- Breaking new ground only takes a small amount more effort than you're used to giving.
- Life is a solo trip, but you'll have lots of visitors. Some of them are long-term, most aren't.
- One of the best things you can do for your kids is take them on road trips. I'm not a parent, but I was a kid once.
- The fewer possessions you have, the more they do for you.
- Einstein was wiser than he was intelligent, and he was a genius.
- When you're sick of your own life, that's a good time to pick up a book.
- Wishing things were different is a great way to torture yourself.
- The ability to be happy is nothing other than the ability to come to terms with how things change.
- Killing time is an atrocity. It's priceless, and it never grows back.