Jordan Peterson

Psychology Canadian 1962 362 quotes

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)

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Joe Rogan Experience #1006 2017

Hierarchy is not a human invention. It's a biological reality.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The best way to solve a problem is to articulate it as clearly as possible.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

You have a moral obligation to be as competent as you can possibly be.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The most important thing you can do is to develop your character.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The truth is what makes you able to survive in the world.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

Chaos is where we are when we don't know what we're doing.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

Order is where we are when we know what we're doing.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The world is not a safe place. It's a dangerous place. And you have to be prepared for that.

Joe Rogan Experience #1006 2017

You have to take responsibility for your own life. No one else is going to do it for you.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The only way to deal with chaos is to confront it.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

You have to be willing to sacrifice who you are for who you could be.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

Don't underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be insurmountable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The past is always there, waiting for you to make peace with it.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The future is always there, waiting for you to build it.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

You have to be able to tolerate uncertainty.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The world reveals itself to you as a function of your aim.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

You have to be careful what you say, because words have power.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018

The truth is a sword that cuts both ways.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos 2018