Jordan Peterson
Clinical psychologist and cultural commentator
Most quoted
"Order is not enough. You can't just be stable, and secure, and well-regulated. There has to be something else. Chaos is not enough. You can't just be creative, and dynamic, and exploratory, or you'll be dead, or in pieces. The proper place is the boundary between order and chaos."
— from 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
"You are not your own property. You are, in part, the property of your community, and your culture, and your ancestors, and your children. And you have a responsibility to them all. And if you shirk that responsibility, you're going to pay a price. And so are they."
— from 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, 2018
"The individual must conduct his or her life in a manner that requires the rejection of immediate gratification, of natural and perverse desires alike, and the sacrifice of hedonic pleasure itself to the greater goal of spiritual enlightenment."
— from Maps of Meaning, 1999
All quotes by Jordan Peterson (362)
People are always asking me, 'What's the meaning of life?' And I say, 'Well, what's the meaning of your life?'
You can't be a good person if you're not a dangerous person.
The problem with the world is that everyone wants to be a hero, but no one wants to do the dishes.
If you're going to be a victim, at least be a good one.
The most important thing you can do is to tell the truth, or at least not lie.
You can't make people happy. You can only make them miserable in a different way.
The world is a terrible place, and you're going to die. So you might as well do something useful.
If you're not suffering, you're not living.
The only way to deal with chaos is to impose order.
People don't want to be free. They want to be safe.
The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.
If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough.
The purpose of life is to find a burden that you can carry.
The world is not a safe place. It's a place where you have to be strong.
Don't underestimate the power of malevolence.
The only way to overcome fear is to confront it.
You can't fix the world until you fix yourself.
If you're not aiming for something, you're just drifting.
The world is a place of suffering, and you have to learn to deal with it.
You have to be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it.
Contemporaries of Jordan Peterson
Other Psychologys born within 50 years of Jordan Peterson (1962).