Mark Manson Quotes & Sayings

#1. Our crisis is no longer material; it's existential, it's spiritual. We have so much fucking stuff and so many opportunities that we don't even know what to give a fuck about anymore.

Mark Manson

#2. the catch is that everything you say must be as authentic as possible. There's no shortcut. There are no tricks. You say it because you mean it and mean it because you say it. The more nervous it makes you, the better, because it means you're being authentic and making yourself vulnerable.

Mark Manson

#3. every second I spend sitting around feeling distant from my true desires, avoiding the world and being afraid to engage it, is a second that I'm forfeiting the biggest gift of all: my time here in this life.

Mark Manson

#4. If you're stuck on a problem, don't sit there and think about it; just start working on it. Even if you don't know what you're doing, the simple act of working on it will eventually cause the right ideas to show up in your head.

Mark Manson

#5. You are going to be incompatible with most

Mark Manson

#6. You cannot be a powerful and life-changing presence to some people without being a joke or an embarrassment to others.

Mark Manson

#7. The fact is, people who base their self-worth on being right about everything prevent themselves from learning from their mistakes. They lack the ability to take on new perspectives and empathize with others. They close themselves off to new and important information. It's

Mark Manson

#8. Life shrinks and expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anais Nin

Mark Manson

#9. This, in a nutshell, is what "self-improvement" is really about: prioritizing better values, choosing better things to give a fuck about. Because when you give better fucks, you get better problems. And when you get better problems,

Mark Manson

#10. Unhealthy love is based on two people trying to escape their problems through their emotions for each other - in other words, they're using each other as an escape. Healthy love is based on two people acknowledging and addressing their own problems with each other's support.

Mark Manson

#11. Victim Mentality. Some choose to believe that there is nothing they can do to solve their problems, even when they in fact could. Victims seek to blame others for their problems or blame outside circumstances. This

Mark Manson

#12. If you think about a young child trying to learn to walk, that child will fall down and hurt itself hundreds of times. But at no point does that child ever stop and think, "Oh, I guess walking just isn't for me. I'm not good at it." Avoiding

Mark Manson

#13. This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes.

Mark Manson

#14. YOUR values determine your behavior, not what you think she wants, not what you think others want, but what is best for you and best for the relationship.

Mark Manson

#15. Everybody on this planet shares a handful of universal emotional realities: ambition, shame, alienation, loneliness, achievement, regret, hardship, friendship, love, heartbreak. We've all experienced it. The facts change, the feelings are the same.

Mark Manson

#16. But the truth is far less interesting than any of these explanations. The truth is, I thought I wanted something, but it turns out I didn't. End of story. I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love with not the fight but only the victory. And

Mark Manson

#17. Challenge yourself to find the good and beautiful thing inside of everyone. It's there. It's your job to find it. Not their job to show you.

Mark Manson

#18. And ultimately, that's what women want, a strong, independent, high status male - a "doesn't take shit from anybody" bad boy - but they want this bad boy to have a depth and a sensitivity that they only open up and show when they're around her.

Mark Manson

#19. What is objectively true about your situation is not as important as how you come to see the situation, how you choose to measure it and value it.

Mark Manson

#20. intentions are always speaking ten times louder than your actual words. What are they saying?

Mark Manson

#21. Happiness is a constant work-in-progress, because solving problems is a constant work-in-progress - the solutions to today's problems will lay the foundation for tomorrow's problems, and so on. True happiness occurs only when you find the problems you enjoy having and enjoy solving. Sometimes

Mark Manson

#22. The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it.

Mark Manson

#23. There are three ways in which we are honest. And those three ways will make up the bulk of this book. The three ways are 1) living based on our values (lifestyle); 2) becoming comfortable with our intentions (boldness); and 3) by expressing our sexuality freely (communication).

Mark Manson

#24. Life is essentially an endless series of problems. The solution to one problem is merely the creation of another.

Mark Manson

#25. The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one's negative experience is itself a positive experience. This

Mark Manson

#26. It's not about giving a fuck about everything your partner gives a fuck about; it's about giving a fuck about your partner regardless of the fucks he or she gives. That's unconditional love, baby.

Mark Manson

#27. To be happy we need something to solve. Happiness is therefore a form of action;

Mark Manson

#28. Who you are is defined by what you're willing to struggle for.

Mark Manson

#29. If you think you can kiss her, you probably could have ten minutes ago.

Mark Manson

#30. That my most important values are honesty, empathy, and intellectual curiosity. That I'm unwilling to tolerate women who don't make me happy, no matter how hot they are.

Mark Manson

#31. Because when we give too many fucks, when we choose to give a fuck about everything, then we feel as though we are perpetually entitled to feel comfortable and happy at all times, that's when life fucks us.

Mark Manson

#32. Humans are attracted to each other's rough edges.

Mark Manson

#33. Like physical pain, our psychological pain is an indication of something out of equilibrium, some limitation that has been exceeded. And like our physical pain, our psychological pain is not necessarily always bad or even undesirable.

Mark Manson