Quotessence
Home / Authors / Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt Quotes

Psychologist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleMoralMoralityThinkingPsychologyIfsEvolutionary PsychologyHumansGroupsMindCommunityWorldGivingBelieveBrainFeelingsHappinessSexShouldSociety

Famous Jonathan Haidt Quotes

“Good relationships make people happy, and happy people enjoy more and better relationships than unhappy people.... Conflicts in relationships--having an annoying office mate or roommate, or having chronic conflict with your spouse--is one of the surest ways to reduce your happiness. You never adapt to interpersonal conflict; it damages every day, even days when you don't see the other person but ruminate about the conflict nonetheless.”

PeopleWayPersonsHappinessEnjoyConflictOfficeUnhappyDamageMatesAnnoyingSpouseHappy PeopleGood RelationshipMaking People HappyRoommateUnhappy PeopleInterpersonal
Author:Jonathan Haidt
Create image

“The final moment of success is often no more thrilling than taking off a heavy backpack at the end of a long hike. If you went on the hike only to feel that pleasure, you are a fool. Yet people sometimes do just this. They work hard at a task and expect some special euphoria at the end. But when they achieve success and find only moderate and short-lived pleasure, they ask is that all there is? They devalue their accomplishments as a striving after wind. We can call this the progress principle: Pleasure comes more from making progress toward goals than from achieving them.”

PeopleIfsFeelsLongEndsSometimesHardMomentsHappinessAsksGoalPleasurePrinciplesProgressAchieveSpecialWindHard WorkFoolTasksStriveFinalsHeavyAccomplishmentModeratesThrillingEuphoriaShort LivedDevalue
Author:Jonathan Haidt
Create image

“Scandal is great entertainment because it allows people to feel contempt, a moral emotion that gives feelings of moral superiority while asking nothing in return. With contempt you don't need to right the wrong (as with anger) or flee the scene (as with fear or disgust). And the best of all, contempt is made to share. Stories about the moral failings of others are among the most common kinds of gossip, they are a stable of talk radio, and they offer a ready way for people to show that they share a common moral orientation.”

PeopleWayNeedsGivingFeelsKindMadeStoriesShowsFeelingsCommonEmotionMoralFailingShareReadyReturnSceneOffersAskingRadioEntertainmentGossipContemptStableDisgustingSuperiorityScandalOrientationTalk RadioMoral SuperiorityContempt You
Book:The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Create image

“The word religion literally means, in Latin, to link or bind together; and despite the vast variation in the world's religions, Wilson shows that religions always serve to coordinate and orient people's behavior toward each other and toward the group as a whole, sometimes for the purpose of competing with other groups.”

PeopleWorldMeanSometimesWholeShowsTogetherPurposeGroupsBehaviorDespiteLatinLinksCompetingVariationWilsonCoordinates
Book:The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Create image

“Happiness requires changing yourself and changing your world. It requires pursuing your own goals and fitting in with others. Different people at different times in their lives will benefit from drawing more heavily on one approach or the other.”

PeopleWorldDifferentGoalBenefitsApproachDrawingDifferent PeoplesFittingDifferent TimesChange Yourself
Book:The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Create image

“I think moral philosophy is speculation on how we ought to live together done by people who have very little clue how people work. So I think most moral philosophy is disconnected from the species that we happen to be. In fact, they like it that way. Many moral philosophers insist that morality grows out of our rationality, that it applies to any rational being anywhere in the universe, and that it is not based on contingent or coincidental facts about our evolution.”

PeopleThinkingDonePhilosophyTogetherUniverseMoralEvolutionMoralityPhilosopherRationalRationalityClueSpeculationMoral Philosophy
Author:Jonathan Haidt
Create image

“Psychotherapy can help some people, especially people who are neurotic, who are always making problems for themselves. We are like a rider on an elephant. We can steer the elephant, and if he's not busy, he'll go where we want, but if he has other desires, he'll go where he wants. They need to get a better relationship between the rider and the elephant. In part, you get it just from watching yourself stumble around in life, make mistakes, then read a little psychology and stop blaming yourself. Realize that I am flawed. I am complicated. I am divided, and I'm doing the best I can.”

PeopleHelpingProblemDesireRealizingMistakePsychologyBlameBusyComplicatedMaking MistakesFlawedNeuroticPsychotherapy
Author:Jonathan Haidt
Create image

“I think that we Americans, in particular, tend to think too directly about problems. If there's a problem we want to basically go in with a screwdriver or else drop bombs on it. A better way to solve problems is to think indirectly and try to change the environment. So I think you can gain much better self-control not so much by working on yourself as by looking at the situations you're in and the people you hang around, and changing your environment.”

PeopleThinkingTryingProblemSituationEnvironmentOur Environment
Author:Jonathan Haidt
Create image

“Morality binds and blinds. It binds us into ideological teams that fight each other as though the fate of the world depended on our side winning each battle. It blinds us to the fact that each team is composed of good people who have something important to say.”

PeopleWorldImportantFactsFightingWinningSidesFateTeamMoralityBattleGood PeopleIdeological
Book:Can't We All Disagree More Constructively?: from The Righteous Mind
Create image

“But the most important lesson I have learned in my twenty years or research on morality is that nearly all people are morally motivated. Selfishness is a powerful force, particularly in the decisions of individuals, but whenever groups of people come together to make a sustained effort to change the world, you can bet that they are pursuing a vision of virtue, justice, or sacredness.”

PeopleWorldYearsImportantTogetherIndividualForceJusticeDecisionPowerfulEffortVisionVirtueGroupsMoralityLessonsResearchTwentiesSelfishSelfishnessChanging The WorldMotivatedI Have LearnedSacrednessImportant Lessons
Book:The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Create image

“The social intuitionist model offers an explanation of why moral and political arguments are so frustrating: because moral reasons are the tail wagged by the intuitive dog. A dog’s tail wags to communicate. You can’t make a dog happy by forcibly wagging its tail. And you can’t change people’s minds by utterly refuting their arguments.”

PeopleMindReasonPoliticalSocialMoralDogOffersModelsArgumentCommunicateExplanationTailsFrustratingIntuitiveCan't ChangeWagsYou Can't Change PeopleCan't Change PeoplePolitical Arguments
Book:The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Create image

“You can see the rider serving the elephant when people are morally dumbfounded. They have strong gut feelings about what is right and wrong, and they struggle to construct post hoc justifications for those feelings. Even when the servant (reasoning) comes back empty-handed, the master (intuition) doesn't change his judgment.”

PeopleFeelingsStrongStruggleMastersJudgmentEmptyIntuitionPostsServantReasoningGutsServingJustificationElephantsConstructsRidersGut Feelings
Book:The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Create image

“Do people believe in human rights because such rights actually exist, like mathematical truths, sitting on a cosmic shelf next to the Pythagorean theorem just waiting to be discovered by Platonic reasoners? Or do people feel revulsion and sympathy when they read accounts of torture, and then invent a story about universal rights to help justify their feelings?”

PeopleFeelsBelieveHumansHelpingStoriesFeelingsNextWaitingRightsSittingUniversalAccountsHuman RightsMathematicalTortureJustifyCosmicShelvesTheoremsPlatonicRevulsionPythagorean Theorem
Book:The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Create image

“And it’s not just that ‘we all need somebody to lean on’; recent work on giving support shows that caring for others is often more beneficial than is receiving help. . . . We need the give and the take, we need to belong. An ideology of extreme personal freedom can be dangerous because it encourages people to leave homes, jobs, cities and marriages in search of personal and professional fulfillment, thereby breaking the relationships that were probably their best hope for such fulfillment.”

PeopleNeedsGivingHelpingShowsHomeJobsCitiesSupportDangerousExtremesCaringIdeologyFulfillmentReceivingBeneficialCaring For OthersHoping For The BestPersonal Freedom
Author:Jonathan Haidt
Create image

“It really is a fact that liberals are much higher than conservatives on a major personality trait called 'openness to experience.' People who are high on openness to experience just crave novelty, variety, diversity, new ideas, travel. People low on it like things that are familiar, that are safe and dependable.”

PeopleIdeasFactsPersonalityHigherSafeDiversityMajorsLowsFamiliarVarietyOpennessTraitsNew IdeasCraveNoveltyDependablePersonality Traits
Author:Jonathan Haidt
Create image