Quotes from Andrew Bernstein

A hero holds purposes appropriate to man and is, therefore, a thinker.

The truth is that stress doesn't come from your boss, your kids, your spouse, traffic jams, health challenges, or other circumstances. It comes from your thoughts about these circumstances.

Nothing is given to man on earth - struggle is built into the nature of life, and conflict is possible - the hero is the man who lets no obstacle prevent him from pursuing the values he has chosen.

The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships, disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated, our ancient stress response hasn't been able to keep up.

The more you worry, the more you throw off the delicate balance of hormones required for health.

For the first time in history, the rational and the good are fully armed in the battle against evil. Here we finally find the answer to our paradox; now we can understand the nature of the social power held by evil. Ultimately, the evil, the irrational, truly has no power. The evil men's control of morality is transient; it lives on borrowed time made possible only by the errors of the good. In time, as more honest men grasp the truth, evil's stranglehold will be easily broken.

Each one of us has the power — and must develop the will — to be the hero of his own life. We believe in goals, in purposes, in achievement and in the joy of living.

Theologians, and religionists in general, start with a fantasy premise and then proceed to apply rigorous formal logic to tease out its implications. Stark himself points out that "theology consists of formal reasoning about God." This is admirably exact. Theologians, beginning with a wished-for creation of their own minds, analyze that creation's characteristics by rigorous application of the principles of formal—that is, deductive—logic.

Stress never comes directly from your circumstances. It comes from your thoughts about your circumstances.

Releasing contracted thoughts through insight is completely natural. When a child is scared of monsters in the dark, you don't teach him to relax, breathe, or cope. You turn on the lights.

We all enjoy pushing ourselves to accomplish our objectives. But we don't need stress to get there.

If you're successful and stressed out, you're succeeding in spite of your stress, not because of it.

The reason humans experience so much more stress than other species isn't just because we think more, but also because we think differently.

Stress is the negative whirlwind of emotions that gets imposed on top of our stimulation and engagement.

Look closer at the stress in your own life and you can identify that negative emotions are always built on counterfactual statements.

Some people are so used to experiencing stress that they don't remember what life was like without it.

Stress is not the spice of life any more than arsenic is. And without it, you won't feel bored.

You can't tell yourself that your stress is produced in your head and feel better. You still need to learn how to create a change.

The less you think counterfactually, the less you experience stress. Stress, in this light, isn't a bad thing. It's simply a warning system telling you that your mind has lost touch with what's real.

People often say that stress is a motivator. What we're referring to when we say this is really better described as stimulation and engagement.

The truth is that stress doesn't come from your boss, your kids, your spouse, traffic jams, health challenges, or other circumstances. It comes from your thoughts about these circumstances.

It's time we learned the truth about stress. It's time we identified the thoughts that actually create our stress and learned to dismantle them one by one.

The elusive truth is that there is nothing stress-producing in the physical world. Things simply are. Molecules move. Light and sound appear.

When a friend is sick, I see the situation for what it is, not what it isn't, and I offer to help as much as she wants, not as much as I want.