“The most valuable lesson I’ve learned as a journalist is that everybody is interesting if you ask the right questions. If someone is dull or uninteresting, it’s on you.”
Kate Murphy, You’re Not Listening
“Realize the following: the word personality comes from the Latin persona, which means ‘mask.’ In public, we all wear masks, and this has a positive function. If we displayed exactly who we are and spoke our minds truthfully, we would offend almost everyone and reveal qualities that are best concealed. Having a persona, playing a role well, actually protects us from people looking too closely at us, with all of the insecurities that would churn up.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 204)
“While our values, cultures, and life circumstances change—our core struggles as humans remain the same. Relationships are hard, but necessary. Trauma is inevitable, but healing is possible. Emotions cannot be conquered, but must be accepted and managed. A sense of purpose is not found, it must be created.”
Mark Manson
“If you’re in a boxing ring and the boxer punches you in the face, you don’t whine about the unfairness or the cruelty. No, that’s just part of the game. I want you to see life like this: If someone does something to you that is nasty, get control of your emotions. Don’t react. Don’t get upset. Look at it as moves on a chessboard.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 190)
“Ignore the front that people display, the myth that surrounds them, and instead plumb their depths for signs of their character. This can be seen in the patterns they reveal from their past, the quality of their decisions, how they delegate authority and work with others, and countless other signs.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 170)
“The most significant indicator of people’s character comes through their actions over time. Despite what people say about the lessons they have learned, and how they have changed over the years, you will inevitably notice the same actions and decisions repeating in the course of their life. In these decisions they reveal their character.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 166)
“You need to train yourself to pay less attention to the words that people say and greater attention to their actions. People will say all kinds of things about their motives and intentions; they are used to dressing things up with words. Their actions, however, say much more about what is going on underneath the surface.”
Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 161)
“Try to understand and remember that a person always tries to do what is best for himself. And if he is right when he does the best thing for himself, it is good; but if he is mistaken, it is bad, because suffering will follow after such mistakes. If you remember this, then you will never be upset by anybody, you will never reproach anybody, and you will never be an enemy to anybody.”
Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 130)
