Happiness is simply the absence of desire.

— James Clear

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

— Litany Against Fear

Does it really take any considerable time or effort just to understand that you depend on enemies and outsiders to define yourself, and that without some opposition you would be lost? To see this is to acquire, almost instantly, the virtue of humor, and humor and self-righteousness are mutually exclusive. Humor is the twinkle in the eye of a just judge, who knows that he is also the felon in the dock.

— Alan Watts

When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.

— The Alchemist

It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.

— Ram Dass

I am not right wing or left wing. I am a human being who listens, empathizes, learns, and thinks. People want to assign labels to each other so they can judge without trying to understand a person. Labels lessen our capacity for empathy and free thought.

— Lex Fridman

When you seethe in vengeance and are unable to forgive someone, you are just wasting your time by engaging yourself in the thoughts of the very person you hate utmost.

— Unknown

Stress causes both mental and physiological responses and tends to amplify the other biases. Almost all human mental biases become worse in the face of stress as the body goes into a fight-or-flight response, relying purely on instinct... Stress causes hasty decisions, immediacy, and a fallback to habit, thus giving rise to the elite soldiers’ motto: "In the thick of battle, you will not rise to the level of your expectations, but fall to the level of your training."

— Shane Parrish