Jordan Peterson quotes - page 5

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist, professor, and author known for his critiques of political correctness and cultural issues. His lectures and books, especially "12 Rules for Life," have attracted a global following and sparked widespread debate. He has become a prominent and often controversial public intellectual. Here are 170 of his quotes:

When you know that the snake is in you – that's wisdom.

Jordan Peterson

Do not try to rescue someone who does not want to be rescued, and be very careful about rescuing someone who does want to be rescued.

Jordan Peterson

People do not care whether or not they succeed; they care about whether or not they fail.

Jordan Peterson

When you tell a lie often enough, you become unable to distinguish it from the truth.

Jordan Peterson

It took untold generations to get you where you are. A little gratitude might be in order. If you're going to insist on bending the world to your way, you better have your reasons.

Jordan Peterson

A good work of fiction is more real than the stories from which it was derived. Otherwise it has no staying power. It's distilled reality. And some would say "it never happened," but it depends on what you mean by "happened."

Jordan Peterson

Romance requires trust-and the deeper the trust, the deeper the possibility for romance.

Jordan Peterson

There is a high goal, a mountain peak, a star that shines in the darkness, beckoning above the horizon. Its mere existence gives you hope-and that is the meaning without which you cannot live.

Jordan Peterson

To come up with the idea that you can bargain with the future is the major idea of humankind. We suffer. What do we do about it? We figure out how to bargain with the future. And we minimize suffering in that manner.

Jordan Peterson

There is nothing more useful in combating the tragedy of life than to struggle with all your soul on behalf of the good.

Jordan Peterson

We've discovered the future, as a place you can bargain with.

Jordan Peterson

What scientific truth tells you is: what things are. Genuine religious truth tells you: how you should act. These are not the same.

Jordan Peterson

Why do dragons hoard gold? Because the things you most need is always to be found where you least want to look.

Jordan Peterson

There is no being without imperfection.

Jordan Peterson

If they're on fire and you have water, then you can sell it to them.

Jordan Peterson

We require routine and tradition. That's order. Order can become excessive, and that's not good, but chaos can swamp us, so we drown-and that is also not good. We need to stay on the straight and narrow path.

Jordan Peterson

Like it or not, your existence is grounded in faith.

Jordan Peterson

I think that truth is the highest value, although it has to be embedded in love. What I mean by that is that truth should serve the highest good imaginable. For me, that is what is best for each individual, in the manner that is simultaneously best for the family, and the state, and nature itself. But you can only want that good if you love Being.

Jordan Peterson

Human beings are made in God's image – that's actually the cornerstone of our legal system. Our body of laws has that metaphysical presupposition, without which the laws fall apart. And that's starting to happen. It really is. It's the postmodern critique of law. The law schools are overrun by postmodernists who are undermining the structure of Western law as fast as they possibly can. They don't buy any of this. So they're much more likely to think of the law as a casual, pragmatic tool that is to be manipulated for the purposes of bringing forth the Utopia. It's a really, really, really bad idea. It's very strange to me that we go off track when that metaphysical foundation starts to get rattled.

Jordan Peterson

Life is suffering, and suffering can make you resentful, murderous, and then genocidal, if you take it far enough. So you need an antidote to suffering. And maybe you think that you can build walls of luxury around yourself, and that that will protect you from the suffering. Good luck with that. That isn't going to work. Maybe you think that you could build a delusion and live inside that. Well, that's going to fall apart. What is there, then, that's going to help you fight against suffering? That's easy: It's the Truth. The Truth is the antidote to suffering. The reason for that is because the Truth puts reality behind you, so that you can face the reality that's coming straight at you without becoming weak and degenerating and becoming resentful and wishing for the destruction of Being, because that's the final Hell. The final Hell is your soul wishing for the destruction of everything, because it's too painful, and you're too bitter. And that happens to people all the time.

Jordan Peterson

Interestingly enough, what you do in a relationship that works is that you actually fall in love with what they could be. They could be the person that you project onto them and fall in love with, but it's going to take a hell of a lot of work. Both parties have no shortage of flaws, so you're bringing your flaws together, and that's going to produce a lot of friction, and you are going to have to engage in a lot of dialogue before you reach that level of perfection that you originally had in the other person's eyes. But maybe you can do it. Maybe you can do it. And then you would live happily ever after.

Jordan Peterson

Human beings are the sort of creature who has to know what to do when they don't know what to do. That's very paradoxical, and what we do is we prepare to do everything. We're on guard, and we prepare to do everything. It's very very stressful, but also something that's very engaging. It's something that heightens consciousness.

Jordan Peterson