We can't live in a state of perpetual doubt, so we make up the best story possible and we live as if the story were true.
Interpretation
We create narratives to give our lives meaning and direction in the face of uncertainty.
This quote reflects on the human tendency to construct narratives or beliefs to navigate through life's uncertainties. Daniel Kahneman suggests that living in continuous doubt is untenable, prompting us to create the most favorable story we can imagine and commit to it, as if it were an undeniable truth. This is an essential aspect of how we find purpose and operate in our daily lives, shaping our perceptions and decisions.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming challenges, you might say, 'As Daniel Kahneman wisely noted, we can't live in a state of perpetual doubt; we must craft our own narratives.'
We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.
The average investor's return is significantly lower than market indices due primarily to market timing.
Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.
Laziness is built deep into our nature.
Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.
You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.
I like to borrow a metaphor from the great poet and mystic Rumi who talks about living like a drawing compass. One leg of the compass is static. It is fixed and rooted in a certain spot. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a huge wide circle around the first one, constantly moving. Just like that, one part of my writing is based in Istanbul. It has strong local roots. Yet at the same time the other part travels the whole wide world, feeling connected to several cities, cultures, and peoples.
Our wish is that...[there be] maintained that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry or that of his fathers.
The 'Grace of Kings' isn't a narrative about a return to some golden age, to a lost status quo ante. It portrays a dynamic world in transition, where the redistribution of power is messy, morally ambivalent, and only lurches toward more justice.
...I will not allow books to prove any thing." "But how shall we prove any thing?" "We never shall.
To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task.
As life goes on it becomes tiring to keep up the character you invented for yourself, and so you relapse into individuality and become more like yourself everyday.
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