Robert

“Others may have it in their power to affect how and even whether you live, but they do not, say the Stoics, have it in their power to ruin your life. Only you can ruin it, by failing to live in accordance with the correct values. The Stoics believed in social reform, but they also believed in personal transformation.”
― William B. Irvine, A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

“We as mental-health care providers have become so caught up in the practice of empathy that we’ve lost sight of the fact that empathy without accountability is a shortsighted attempt to relieve suffering. If the therapist and patient re-create a story in which the patient is a perpetual victim of forces beyond their control, chances are good that the patient will continue to be victimized.”
― Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

“Again, my goal isn’t to convince you that there’s no free will; it will suffice if you merely conclude that there’s so much less free will than you thought that you have to change your thinking about some truly important things.”
― Robert M. Sapolsky, Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will

“In addition to responsibility, Alcoholics Anonymous emphasizes “rigorous honesty” as a central precept of its philosophy, and these ideas go together. The fourth of AA’s 12 Steps requires members to take a “searching and fearless moral inventory,” in which the individual considers his or her character defects and how they have contributed to a problem.”
― Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence