The need for certainty is the greatest disease the Mind faces
Interpretation
The quest for absolute certainty can hinder our ability to think critically and embrace uncertainty.
Robert Greene's quote highlights the detrimental effects of an excessively strong desire for certainty in our thoughts and decisions. This need can lead to inflexible thinking, stifling creativity, and preventing us from adapting to new information or changing circumstances. Embracing uncertainty allows for greater cognitive flexibility and opens the door to new possibilities.
In practice
This quote could be used in a motivational speech to encourage individuals to embrace the unknown.
In a society where the roles everyone plays are obvious, the refusal to conform to any standard will excite interest. Be both masculine and feminine, impudent and charming, subtle and outrageous. Let other people worry about being socially acceptable; those types are a dime a dozen, and you are after a power greater than they can imagine.
When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.
The moment people feel they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is broken. More: You have ceded them power.
The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.
The Nihilistic Troll might pretend to be acting in the service of some cause or leader, but don't be fooled. The cause and their supposedly strong convictions are simply a way to justify and provide cover for their abusive behavior.
Only create associations with positive affinities. Make this a rule of life and you will benefit more than from all the therapy in the world.
If you want the truth rather than merely something to say, you will have a good deal less to say.
If Heaven and Earth are unable to persist, how could man?
We need be careful how we deal with those about us, when every death carries to some small circle of survivors, thoughts of so much omitted, and so little done- of so many things forgotten, and so many more which might have been repaired! There is no remorse so deep as that which is unavailing; if we would be spared its tortures, let us remember this, in time.
I was escaping from Nature and at last becoming myself, that Other whom I was aspiring to be in the eyes of others.
I thought when I became a Christian I had nothing to do but just to lay my oars in the bottom of the boat and float along. But I soon found that I would have to go against the current.
Truth is, I've always been selling out. The difference is that in the past, I looked like I had integrity because there were no buyers.
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