“The best way of managing fear is preparation; and amazingly, unlike other types of public appearance that involve major planning and rehearsals, people don't often prepare enough for talks.”
— Chris Anderson
Curator of TED Talks & Author of "The Long Tail

The quote archive

Psychology

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

Starting a business is an exciting venture, often filled with enthusiasm, borrowed money, and a fair share of ignorance. In fact, a certain level of ignorance can be beneficial for an entrepreneur. If you were fully aware of the potential obstacles ahead, you might hesitate to start.

— Brian Smith

The Buddha would calmly invite Mara to have tea, demonstrating the importance of befriending what's difficult. The key is learning how to have tea with Mara and embrace even the most intense energies.

— Tara Brach

Meditation Teacher & Author of "Radical Acceptance

Our suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt, and unprocessed parts of our psyche, or the 'issues in our tissues.' We often frame emotions as negative, but it's important to recognize the intelligence within every emotion, even depression, fear, and hurt.

— Tara Brach

Meditation Teacher & Author of "Radical Acceptance

I believe that the more we trust the 'gold' within ourselves, the more we are able to see it in others. When we interact with others, we can either fixate on their anxieties or performance concerns, or we can attune our receptors to truly sense the genuineness, curiosity, and care within them.

— Tara Brach

Meditation Teacher & Author of "Radical Acceptance

The more we recognize that we are the ocean and the waves represent different aspects of our being, the less any individual wave of difficulty will consume, overwhelm, or define us. We can remember that while these waves are a part of us, they do not encompass our entire existence.

— Tara Brach

Meditation Teacher & Author of "Radical Acceptance

It seems to be a part of our evolutionary journey to feel separate, living within the confines of an ego-driven narrative, experiencing a sense of limitation and disconnection from others. In essence, we suffer from a mistaken identity, identifying ourselves as individuals rather than recognizing our interconnectedness.

— Tara Brach

Meditation Teacher & Author of "Radical Acceptance

You cannot fully realize your own self in isolation. It's a collective effort; your uniqueness is essentially shaped by everyone else in the world. Everyone else plays a role in sculpting your distinct identity. Individuality is essentially a community project.

— Kevin Kelly

Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine & Technology Thinker

While pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Painful events are a given in life, but the transformation of this pain into enduring suffering lies within our control. The critical aspect isn't the adversity one faces, but how one responds to such adversity. This reaction, rather than the events themselves, forms the narrative of our lives.

— Kevin Kelly

Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine & Technology Thinker

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 journey we're on doesn't necessarily have a fixed destination; rather, it's about moving in the right direction. The purpose of life is to decipher your own purpose in life. This isn't a contradictory statement; rather, it's a necessary paradox. We exist in order to uncover the reasons for our existence.

— Kevin Kelly

Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine & Technology Thinker

Despite being an immediate part of our existence, consciousness is potentially the most complex and elusive aspect of the universe. We haven't even begun to formulate the right questions to unravel its intricacies.

— Lawrence Krauss

Theoretical Physicist & Public Advocate for Science and Atheism

Who you are, how you perceive yourself, and how others perceive you, all are enmeshed within this tapestry, which consists of billions of neuronal connections. Alzheimer's, in essence, pulls this tapestry apart, thread by thread.

— Dr. Rudolph Tanzi

Alzheimer's disease researcher and Harvard Medical School neuroscientist

Surveys show that, surprisingly, more people fear Alzheimer's disease more than they do cancer. This is due to the fact that Alzheimer's isn't a quick affliction; it extends over a period of 8-20 years, during which individuals slowly lose themselves. This disease methodically dismantles your neural network, a network that represents a tapestry of experiences and connections you've built throughout your life.

— Dr. Rudolph Tanzi

Alzheimer's disease researcher and Harvard Medical School neuroscientist

Our brains consist of about 100 billion nerve cells and neurons, with a potential for making anywhere from tens to hundreds of trillions, some even say a quadrillion, connections known as synapses. Due to a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity, our neural network continually restructures itself. Each time we learn something new or encounter a fresh experience, we trigger a reconfiguration of our brains.

— Dr. Rudolph Tanzi

Alzheimer's disease researcher and Harvard Medical School neuroscientist

My primary intention was to truly 'see' my son – a sentiment that, I believe, resonates with most of us. We yearn for acknowledgment, for someone to truly hear us and see us for who we are. One of the greatest luxuries I discovered during our walk was the gift of time with an adult child.

— Andrew McCarthy

Actor known for 1980s films like "St. Elmo's Fire

Truth be told, fatherhood was never a role I envisioned for myself, never an ambition I pursued. Yet now, I consider it the most defining aspect of my identity and my place in the world. Parenthood instigates a major shift, redirecting much of your attention outwards rather than inwards, and I firmly believe this to be a positive transformation.

— Andrew McCarthy

Actor known for 1980s films like "St. Elmo's Fire