“And here lies the essential between Stoicism and the modern-day 'cult of optimism.' For the Stoics, the ideal state of mind was… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
Through positive thinking and related approaches, we seek the safety and solid ground of certainty, of knowing how the future will turn… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“Perhaps you don’t need telling that self-help books, the modern-day apotheosis of the quest for happiness, are among the things that fail… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
The effort to feel happy is often precisely the thing that makes us miserable. And that it is out constant efforts to… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
The effort to try to feel happy is often precisely the thing that makes us miserable, — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“...it pointed to an alternative approach, a ‘negative path’ to happiness, that entailed taking a radically different stance towards those things that… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“Part of the problem with positive thinking, and many related approaches to happiness, is exactly this desire to reduce big questions to… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“But sometimes you simply can't make yourself feel like acting. And in those situations, motivational advice risks making things worse, by surreptitiously… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
Confronting the worst-case scenario saps it of much of its anxiety-inducing power. Happiness reached via positive thinking can be fleeting and brittle,… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“I asked him what he thought was the biggest barrier to happiness for most people. ‘It’s just a total absence of awareness,… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
Uncertainty is where things happen. It is where the opportunities - for success, for happiness, for really living - are waiting. — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“For the Stoics, then, our judgments about the world are all that we can control, but also all that we need to… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“For a civilisation so fixated on achieving happiness, we seem remarkably incompetent at the task.” — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
...It's more important than ever that we find new ways to cultivate curiosity - because our careers, our happiness, and our children's… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
Ask yourself whether you are happy', observed the philosopher John Stuart Mill, 'and you cease to be so.' At best, it would… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
Ceaseless optimism about the future only makes for a greater shock when things go wrong; by fighting to maintain only positive beliefs about the… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“And here lies the essential between Stoicism and the modern-day 'cult of optimism.' For the Stoics, the ideal state of mind was tranquility, not… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“By the second day, the song lyrics had faded, but in their place came darker irritations. Gradually, I started to become aware of a… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
Through positive thinking and related approaches, we seek the safety and solid ground of certainty, of knowing how the future will turn out, of… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“All these counterproductive ways of thinking about failure manifest themselves most acutely in the phenomenon of perfectionism. This is one of those traits that… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“Ceaseless optimism about the future only makes for a greater shock when things go wrong; by fighting to maintain only positive beliefs about the… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“The greatest benefit of negative capability—the true power of negative thinking—is that it lets the mystery back in.” — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
What made Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein such creative geniuses? It wasn't reading books or watching YouTube talks about How To… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“Perhaps you don’t need telling that self-help books, the modern-day apotheosis of the quest for happiness, are among the things that fail to make… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
Who says you need to wait until you 'feel like' doing something in order to start doing it? The problem, from this perspective, isn't… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
“Incremental theory’ people are different. Because they think of abilities as emerging through tackling challenges, the experience of failure has a completely different meaning… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
It is illuminating to note, here, how the daily rituals and working routines of prolific authors and artists - people who really do get… — Oliver Burkeman Copy Share Image
