Wisdom in fragments

Fear is like being shot out of a cannon. Imagine a car has fallen on someone I love—I get this clear, calm, intense bolt of energy. In that heightened state, I could lift the car off them (as has happened before in rare cases). Anxiety, on the other hand, is like being haunted. You never actually see what's scaring you—it's just a story in your head that never goes away.

Life Coach, Author & Sociologist Known for Self-Acceptance Work

Einstein famously said time is what a clock measures, which was a half-joke but also the best answer he could give. A clock measures the 'distance' it travels through spacetime between events. That's fascinating, but it still doesn't tell you what time actually is.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

Quantum mechanics is a consistent mathematical structure, not that difficult to understand in itself, which nature has chosen. The confusing thing is that nature chose something that doesn't feel intuitive to us. It has a reputation for being mystifying mainly because of its history rather than what it really is as a theory.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

Many biologists I speak to would say it's almost incomprehensible that something as complex as us has even appeared at all—we might just be very lucky. Or maybe it normally only takes a few hundred million years to go from life to intelligence, and we were just slow. We have a sample size of one.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

The paradox is that in the Milky Way galaxy, with something like 400 billion stars and trillions of planets, it's estimated there may be around 10 billion potentially Earth-like worlds. And the galaxy has been around for about 13 billion years. If a civilisation had developed ahead of us and become spacefaring, it's very hard to see why we haven't noticed any evidence of that.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

Whatever you think it is, it self-evidently exists, because the universe means something to each of us. But I would argue that whatever it is, it's an emergent property. So it exists here on Earth because there are complex biological systems. Without those complex biological systems, it doesn't exist. There is no meaning. We bring meaning to it.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

These scorecards just lead us down a path of dissatisfaction, when in reality most things that truly matter for happiness can't be measured in any meaningful way. We should be more mindful of living in the moment rather than keeping tally marks that don't really serve us.

Psychologist known for teaching popular "Science of Well-Being" course at Yale

I often joke that social media is the 'NutraSweet' version—it seems good but doesn't deliver the psychological benefit we expect. In fact, our use of technology can be a big opportunity cost on a lot of the stuff that truly matters for happiness.

Psychologist known for teaching popular "Science of Well-Being" course at Yale

I think there's a big misconception—sometimes called 'toxic positivity' or 'good vibes only'—that a happy life is one where we only experience positive emotions. But that's just patently false. Evolutionarily speaking, our negative emotions serve a really important purpose: they cue us to take action.

Psychologist known for teaching popular "Science of Well-Being" course at Yale

So many of the things our culture pushes us to pursue for happiness don't actually work the way we think they will. Material possessions, more money—if you're on social media, you get this strong sense that you should go after more of everything and then you'll feel better.

Psychologist known for teaching popular "Science of Well-Being" course at Yale

I think these are all cases where our brains lie to us. It's not because they're doing something insidious or that there's some advantage to messing up our sense of happiness—it's just the normal processes of our brains sometimes go awry, and we end up not appreciating what we have as much as we could.

Psychologist known for teaching popular "Science of Well-Being" course at Yale

a compelling call to action that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.

Motivational Speaker & Author of "The 5 Second Rule

a powerful call to action to think deeply about what lights you up—and a guide for how to build a life of meaning and purpose.

Chief Executive Officer of Apple Inc

When you understand that your perception shapes your experience, you stop fearing uncertainty. The fear of 'not knowing' comes from the worry that something bad might happen. But if things aren't inherently good or bad, then not knowing isn't something to be afraid of.

Harvard psychologist & researcher in mindfulness and the psychology of possibility

Most people assume a wound heals at its natural pace. But no—it healed according to perceived time. If the clock ran faster, the wound healed faster. If it ran slower, healing slowed.

Harvard psychologist & researcher in mindfulness and the psychology of possibility

If we treat the mind and body as one unit, then wherever we put the mind, we necessarily put the body—and that opens up enormous possibilities for control.

Harvard psychologist & researcher in mindfulness and the psychology of possibility