You can be wise and smart, but there's no relationship between being smart and being wise - and there's no quick pathway from smart to wise.

Here lies the arrogance of the intellect.

"It's unbelievably adventurous to only say what you think is true right there and then, to be in that moment, and to have decided that there's no agenda, "I'm just going to say what I think, regardless of the consequences."

"Under The Skin" Podcast with Russell Brand. Available here: http://luminary.link/russell

To treat yourself as if you were someone you are responsible for helping is, instead, to consider what would be truly good for you.

This is not “what you want.” It is also not “what would make you happy.”

You need to consider the future and think, “What might my life look like if I were caring for myself properly? What career would challenge me and render me productive and helpful, so that I could shoulder my share of the load, and enjoy the consequences?

"What should I be doing, when I have some freedom, to improve my health, expand my knowledge, and strengthen my body?”

"...you can’t move ahead without axiomatic presuppositions. The issue is they have to be, it seems to me, and maybe this has to do with the Christian idea that you’re supposed to look for the evil within: you’re destined to operate with a set of axiomatic presuppositions."

Watch more of this here: https://youtu.be/RsmSBJMSRQk

If you work as hard as you can on one thing, you will change. You will start to also become one thing instead of the clamoring multitude you once were.

That one thing, developed properly, is not only the disciplined entity formed by sacrifice, commitment, and concentration. It is that which creates, destroys, and transforms discipline itself— civilization itself— by expressing its unity of personality and society.

Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.

"...But what they [the social-justice crusade] lack is a Christian sense of compassion for weak, feeble humanity, which we all are, we’re all crooked, and the sense that the line between good and evil runs right down the middle of every one of us."

Listen to more of my talk with Dr. Nigel Biggar and Dr. James Orr on my YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/RsmSBJMSRQk

Yeonmi shares the story of a pastor who told her she was "dirty" for the acts she had to do to survive while in China.

Watch more with Yeonmi here: https://youtu.be/8yqa-SdJtT4

"...the human heart demands an adventure. That’s especially true if you’re young... there has to be a call to adventure in order to keep people motivated to move forward in their life, both as individuals and as members of society."

A clip from my talk with Ben Shapiro.

"We all want power. There's nothing wrong with that. The trick is to use it well. Everyone wants power; no one likes to be powerless, and why should we? But we need the right kinds of power for the right kinds of reasons."

Visit my YouTube channel if you're yet to watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsmSBJMSRQk

"What I received was sexual assault. I mean full physical contact. It's not like dirty talking, that happened too, but I mean direct sexual assault, rape, and that was really bad." - Mohamedou Ould Salahi.

Mohamedou Ould Salahi was detained at Guantanamo Bay detention camp without charge from 2002 until his release on October 17, 2016. Slahi wrote a memoir in 2005 while imprisoned, which the U.S. government declassified in 2012 with numerous redactions.

Watch this episode here: https://youtu.be/kxMj_u5fQH4

"...every hour they wake me up, and they make me drink water. Every hour. You can never sleep when someone does this to you, because you will always go to the bathroom continuously."

Watch more of this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMj_u5fQH4

How much better could things become if we all avoided the temptation to actively or passively warp the structure of existence; if we replaced anger with the vicissitudes of Being with gratitude and truth?

"They just say, “You’re a terrorist,” because when someone says you’re a terrorist, everything could be done against you. There is no definition, and I have a big problem with that.”

Watch more of my podcast with Mohamedou here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMj_u5fQH4

You can choose what you're interested in, but a lot of it has to do with who you are.

An interest is something that grabs you to move you forward on the developmental curve.

"Steve Wood, he came to me three times, and I hosted him in my humble home...

We became friends, good friends. He's the godfather of my child. I'm the godfather of his daughter. We just want to be friends and show everyone that peace can be made."

If you'd like to watch more, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMj_u5fQH4

With will and luck, you will find a story that is meaningful and productive, improves itself with time, and perhaps even provides you with more than a few moments of satisfaction and joy.

With will and luck, you will be the hero of that story, the disciplined sojourner, the creative transformer, and the benefactor of your family and broader society.

Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that.

- An excerpt from my book, "Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life."

Read more: https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/beyond-order/

My latest podcast with John Anderson is now live on YouTube.

We cover the freedom of conscience, policies, mandatory vaccines, the situation in Australia and more.

Tune in here: https://youtu.be/NoRFaiqiQGo

Making happiness the focal point of your life trivialises your experiences because in order to regard anything as truly important, you also have to regard its loss as truly meaningful.⁣
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That means that to open yourself up to experiences of deep meaning also simultaneously means that you have to open yourself up to the possibility of deep hurt and sorrow.

It's great to run towards something you like. But it's even better to run away from something that terrifies you.

Take all your faults and inadequacies. Then imagine those get the upper hand and think about where you could be in three to five years.

Some people know they'd be a street person, some people know they'd be an alcoholic, some people know they'd be a prostitute or a drug addict. Everybody's got their own little hell they could descend into with a fair degree of rapidity and a fair bit of enjoyment.

Source: The Joe Rogan Experience #1070

You don't protect your children. You don't get rid of the vulnerability. In fact, you do the opposite.

You expose them to the world as much as you possibly can. You teach them to be strong.

That's the best antidote to their vulnerability.