“You should not overlook the guidelines of your culture. Life is short, and you don’t have time to figure everything out on your own. The wisdom of the past was hard-earned, and your dead ancestors may have something useful to tell you.”

Much of happiness is hope.

Don’t use language instrumentally.

We may not exactly be God, but we’re not exactly nothing, either.

You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act. You simply don’t know what you believe, before that. You are too complex to understand yourself.

Treat yourself like you would someone you’re responsible for helping.

Stop saying those things that make you weak and ashamed. Say only those things that make you strong. Do only those things that you could speak of with honor.

Territory matters, and there is little difference between territorial rights and social status. It is often a matter of life and death.

If you cannot understand why someone did something, look at the consequences – and infer the motivation.

You must determine where you are going in your life, because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction.

Order is not enough. You can’t just be stable, and secure, and unchanging, because there are still vital and important new things to be learned.

I’m not hurt. I’m appalled.

It’s the chattering buzz of ideologically possessed demons.

Beauty shames the ugly. Strength shames the weak. Death shames the living – and the Ideal shames us all.

I don’t think that you have any insight whatsoever into your capacity for good until you have some well-developed insight into your capacity for evil.

Experience is the best teacher, and the worst experiences teach the best lessons.

The successful among us delay gratification. The successful among us bargain with the future.