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)

Chaos is the domain of possibility.

Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief 1999

Order is not enough. You can't just be stable, and secure, and well-regulated, because then you're dead. You have to have one foot in order and the other in chaos.

Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief 1999

The highest good is to be found in the adoption of responsibility.

Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief 1999

The most profound truths are often the most uncomfortable.

Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

Do not allow yourself to become resentful.

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life 2021

Don't hide things in the fog.

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life 2021

Pay attention.

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life 2021

Be grateful in spite of your suffering.

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life 2021

The greatest tragedy is to have a talent and not use it.

Public Lectures/Interviews

You're going to pay a price for everything you do and everything you don't do. You don't get to choose not to pay a price. You only get to choose which price you pay.

Public Lectures/Interviews

The truth is what allows you to survive.

Public Lectures/Interviews

To suffer is to be human.

Public Lectures/Interviews

The world is not a safe place, but it is a place where you can be safe if you are careful.

Public Lectures/Interviews

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

Public Lectures/Interviews

The purpose of life is to find your own burden and carry it.

Public Lectures/Interviews

You cannot be a good person if you are not a strong person.

Public Lectures/Interviews

The most important thing you can do is to tell the truth, especially when it's difficult.

Public Lectures/Interviews

It is in the most profound depths of suffering that the greatest opportunities for growth lie.

Public Lectures/Interviews

The world reveals itself to you in proportion to your courage.

Public Lectures/Interviews

You have to be a monster to deal with monsters.

Public Lectures/Interviews