How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

There are two Identity Traps: (1) the belief that you should be someone other than yourself; and (2) the assumption that others will do things in the way you would.

Ask yourself what you’d do if you were sure you couldn’t change the attitudes of others. What then would you do by yourself to keep the problem from affecting you? If you approach it on that basis, you usually find that there are many more direct alternatives available than you’d noticed while you were busy trying to change others.

In many ways, a social structure that appears at a distance to be governed objectively by certain clear and fair principles will, in reality, be composed of human beings who’ll apply those principles subjectively. And that, of course, is what we have already. In fact, that kind of system has always existed — no matter what name it may bear.

Get in the habit of asking your employer and your customers what they need and they aren’t getting. Get in the habit of thinking of things you’d like to do but aren’t doing now.

a unionized job, your wage is determined by factors other than your individual worth, so the chances are that you’ll be paid too much or too little. Either event has its consequences. If you’re underpaid, you’re wasting your time in that job. If you’re overpaid, you have little incentive to grow into new areas of your job or find out what you’re ca

And if you’re free to voice your jealousy openly, without condemnation or demands, you may find that the mere act of saying what you feel will alleviate some of the pain of it. Too often, jealousy smolders and grows because it’s suppressed or denied and the discomfort is attributed to something else.

It isn’t essential that you know the final truth about everything in the world; and you don’t have the resources to discover it. Instead, the test to be applied to any idea is: does it work? Does your identification of things lead to the consequences you expect?

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. — C. Northcote Parkinson

The individual who doesn’t know himself can’t speak with authority about himself. He can’t make promises, because he doesn’t know himself well enough to foresee his future emotions and actions. He can’t express authoritative opinions, because he doesn’t really know what he believes.