“Everyone experiences some form of trauma. Many people are unaware that being bullied, constantly criticised, or neglected can also be forms of trauma. There's a growing recognition of these repeated relational injuries—being ignored or growing up in a dysfunctional family where excessive drinking or overworking occurs, neglecting one's emotional needs.”— Frank Anderson
The quote archive
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
By our nature, we are all self-absorbed, irrational, short-sighted. You have to have some humility in life before you can begin to understand yourself, and before you can begin to change yourself, the world, or other people.
— Robert GreeneAuthor of "The 48 Laws of Power" & Strategist
My father taught me an important lesson; when you get something, when you receive something, it's important to give back. This lesson is something that has really stuck with me through my whole life, and I've always tried to do social good as much as I can.
— Renzo RossoFounder and Chairman of Diesel fashion brand and Only The Brave Group
A lot of people think we're pleasure motivated hedonists, but it turns out we have many other goals. We want happiness, but that comes in many different forms. We want pleasure, we want to be good people, we want to make a difference in the world.
— Paul BloomPsychologist specializing in moral development and human nature research
Chosen suffering is part and parcel of a meaningful life. If you don't have any chosen suffering in your life, you're probably not living the best life you could.
— Paul BloomPsychologist specializing in moral development and human nature research
If you tell me a pursuit that you view as meaningful and important, I can guarantee it won't be easy. If it was easy, it wouldn't be meaningful or important. We reserve the notion of meaning for things that have difficulty.
— Paul BloomPsychologist specializing in moral development and human nature research
Work is preventing us living. So many people use work to avoid deeper topics around their lives, relationships, kids and health – deeper topics that can lead to the positive choices they need to make that will make them happier.
— Joe SanokFounder of Practice of the Practice & Mental Health Business Consultant
If you love yourself – and feel good about yourself, it will help you enhance your future, life, and relationships. Loving yourself makes you feel worthy and if you love yourself, you're far more likely to love others.
— Ken LindnerSuccess is as very personal benchmark – it's what the individual wants. To understand success, you have to know what makes you happy… not what makes your parents, spouse, teacher or children happy… but what makes you happy.
— Ken LindnerChoices are like train tracks – the train go where the tracks take them – we go where our choices take-us. Our lives are a reflection of the poor, and the positive, life choices we've made (and make!).
— Ken LindnerYou are the custodian of your body. Billions, perhaps trillions, of organisms live in your bowel and your immune system is formed and informed by those organisms.
— Dr. Bob LahitaRheumatologist and lupus researcher; author on autoimmune diseases
There is a biological force within your body that wants you to live to old age… you could call it your immune system, or your biological soul!
— Dr. Bob LahitaRheumatologist and lupus researcher; author on autoimmune diseases
If our senses are really how we understand the world, and there are differences in those sensory windows, then our internal world will be different. Perhaps these differences explain the diversity of beliefs.
— Guy LeschzinerSleep medicine specialist and NHS consultant neurologist studying sleep disorders
What we perceive to be the absolute truth of the world around us is a complex reconstruction, a virtual reality created by the complex machinations of our minds. We have no idea about the world that we inhabit and what the brain is doing is really creating an entire shortcut that enables us to understand the world without being able to physically really understand the reality in which we inhabit, which is a mind-blowing concept.
— Guy LeschzinerSleep medicine specialist and NHS consultant neurologist studying sleep disorders
The smartest being on planet Earth is life itself. Life creates with abundance, not with scarcity. Life does not want to kill the tigers for the deer to survive. Life basically says more deer, more tigers, more everything.
— Mo GawdatFormer Google Executive & Author of "Solve for Happy
The only reason we are the master of anything today is because of our intelligence. We're not the strongest species on the planet. Without our intelligence, we're quite irrelevant. When they are smarter than we are, it is wishful thinking that they will continue to be connected to us.
— Mo GawdatFormer Google Executive & Author of "Solve for Happy
Humanity has the arrogance to believe that our intelligence is the only form of intelligence. Of course, we're arrogant enough to believe that we are the most intelligent being on the planet. We don't really know what intelligence is.
— Mo GawdatFormer Google Executive & Author of "Solve for Happy