Disease, and most specially opprobrious, suppressed, secret disease, creates a certain critical opposition to the world, to mediocre life, disposes a man to be obstinate and ironical toward civil order, so that he seeks refuge in free thought, in books, in study.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.

causing people to do the opposite of what you’re asking, just to prove that you aren’t controlling them — a phenomenon known as psychological reactance.

A conditioned mind is never a free mind.

Whatever an enemy might do to an enemy, or a foe to a foe, the ill-directed mind can do to you even worse

Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease, when the mind is obsessed with it.

The philosopher treats a question; like an illness.

The following of authority is the denial of intelligence. [It] may help us temporarily to cover up our difficulties and problems; but to avoid a problem is only to intensify it, and in the process, self-knowledge and freedom are abandoned.

There seems to be an attitude problem, as if we cannot shake ourselves out of a mindset of limited achievement.

There are millions of human beings who live narrow, darkened, frustrated lives — who live defensively — simply because they take a defensive, doubtful attitude toward themselves and, as a result, toward life in general. A person with a poor attitude becomes a magnet for unpleasant experiences. When those experiences come — as they must, because of his attitude — they tend to reinforce his poor attitude, thereby bringing more problems, and so on.

motivating people, forcing them to your will, gives you a cynical attitude toward humanity. It degrades everything it touches.

not having the right perspective or vantage point, ego-induced denial, and distance from the consequences of our decisions.

There seems to be such a thing as the generically prejudiced mind.