The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

by Mark Manson

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.

Wanting positive experience is a negative experience; accepting negative experience is a positive experience.

To not give a fuck is to stare down life’s most terrifying and difficult challenges and still take action.

You can’t be an important and life-changing presence for some people without also being a joke and an embarrassment to others.

I once heard an artist say that when a person has no problems, the mind automatically finds a way to invent some.

Essentially, we become more selective about the fucks we’re willing to give. This is something called maturity.

the only way to overcome pain is to first learn how to bear it.

our own pain and misery aren’t a bug of human evolution; they’re a feature.

Just because something feels good doesn’t mean it is good. Just because something feels bad doesn’t mean it is bad. Emotions are merely signposts, suggestions that our neurobiology gives us, not commandments. Therefore, we shouldn’t always trust our own emotions. In fact, I believe we should make a habit of questioning them.

Real, serious, lifelong fulfillment and meaning have to be earned through the choosing and managing of our struggles.

unless you find a way to appreciate the risk, the uncertainty, the repeated failures, the insane hours devoted to something that may earn absolutely nothing.

Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.

If you want to change how you see your problems, you have to change what you value and/or how you measure failure/success.