“Don't base one's identity on their opinions. This can be a perilous path because it makes it challenging to change one's mind. Instead, it's preferable to root one's identity in their values and character. In a world that's rapidly evolving, it's essential to anchor ourselves to elements that are stable - our values and character, the principles we uphold.”
— Kevin Kelly
Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine & Technology Thinker

The quote archive

Psychology

A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.

We don't fail because we make mistakes; mistakes can be fixed. We fail because we quit. And we quit because belief collapsed, not because the strategy was wrong.

— Nir Eyal

The test for any belief isn't whether it makes you feel good. It's whether it makes you better at engaging with reality. That's not self-help. That's applied science.

— Nir Eyal

It seems, to me, that relationships are face to face things. There is no point in having a virtual relationship if you are never going to see those individuals again as it crowds your 'mental boxes'. To think of this in context, they are real cognitive limits.

— Robin Dunbar

Evolutionary Psychologist Known for Dunbar's Number Theory

You are surrounded by an endless series of expanded layers of social networks. Your inner core is 5, which extends to 50-150, 500 and eventually out to around 1500. As you go out through the networks, the number of people included increases, the average quality of these relationships declines.

— Robin Dunbar

Evolutionary Psychologist Known for Dunbar's Number Theory

It turns out, though, very clearly, that our social networks are no larger in virtual worlds than in reality. The people you have on your network are the people you would typically keep into contact with in reality, face to face. The difference is, though, that you get lots of 'hangers on' appearing on your network.

— Robin Dunbar

Evolutionary Psychologist Known for Dunbar's Number Theory

There is something about the female psyche which is intensely social, and the most trivial conversations become part of the process of bonding. This perhaps is what causes the difference in message in sms, facebook, etc. They may appear trivial (e.g. I'm here, doing this) but there will be a lot more un-stated below the surface (i.e. I'm here talking to YOU and I'm happy to be talking to you rather than someone else) A form of commitment.

— Robin Dunbar

Evolutionary Psychologist Known for Dunbar's Number Theory

The bottom line is that this goes back to the fact that, like all primates, we are an intensely social species, and having our friends, cohorts, and acquaintances close is important to our general success. In these senses 'keeping the wheels oiled' is critical, hence why we like gossip, and hence why biographies and fiction so wildly outsell anything else in the books market.

— Robin Dunbar

Evolutionary Psychologist Known for Dunbar's Number Theory

Abraham Maslow (a famous psychologist) once commented, 'if all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail'. Investors currently have a hammer, and that hammer is economics.

— Marc Chandler

Chief Strategist & Senior Currency Strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex

Mobile telephones can really revolutionize the study of human behavior

— Ramón Cáceres

Unknown.

Fundamental sense of well-being crucially depends on our having the ability to exert control over our environment and recognising that we do.

— Martin Seligman

Psychologist & Founder of Positive Psychology Movement

It is not an exaggeration to say that most of our fundamental sense of well-being crucially depends on our having the ability to exert control over our environment and recognising that we do.

— Martin Seligman

Psychologist & Founder of Positive Psychology Movement

Animals in this third group had learned from being exposed to inescapable shocks that nothing they did made a difference- they were essentially helpless when it came to controlling their fate. Learned helplessness can affect the future motivation to try. It can affect future ability to detect that you do have control in new situations.

— Martin Seligman

Psychologist & Founder of Positive Psychology Movement

Nuclear weapons continue to be built for basically two reasons: power and prestige. In almost every case where a country has decided to acquire a nuclear weapon they have done it either for power—the power to protect their country from external threats or a desire to project their power in the region.

— Joseph Cirincione

Nuclear weapons expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund.

Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. For me intelligence is a property of life. Even the most humble unicellular living organism must be intelligent to solve the problems of everyday life. Human intelligence is, for want of a better phrase, a degree of magnitude greater than the intelligence of a Paramecium or, better, of a Chlamydomonas; but the difference is just quantitative and not qualitative.

— Stefano Mancuso

Plant neurobiologist and founder of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology.

You asked why movies have become so popular, I'm going to tell you why, it's because the images move… They're not static. I could stare at a Van-Gogh for hours, but I sit in a theatre and the images move. As the frames move and tell a story, it is that movement which emotionally connects you.

— Tom Sherak

Unknown.

To me personally, movies are about escapism. Movies are about sitting in a theatre, watching something- watching a story unfold with people I don't know- watching that happen and emoting an emotion knowing that for those two hours, when I walk into that theatre, I don't have to worry about what is going on outside.

— Tom Sherak

Unknown.