A really good book costs $10 or $20 and can change your life in a meaningful way

Saying, 'I don't have time,' is just another way of saying it's not a priority

Happiness is a default state. It’s what’s there when you remove the sense that something is missing from your life.

Every positive thought has a seed of a negative thought within it

Do I really care if I embarrass myself? I'm going to die anyway, this is all going to go to 0, and I won't remember anything. This is pointless.

Everything that I was doing, I should have still done, but with less emotion, and especially less anger

Do what you're going to do, just with less emotion and angst

You can’t just pick and choose what aspects of another’s life you want

I probably read one to two hours a day and that puts me in the top .001 percent. I think that alone accounts for any material success that I've had in my life.

Only associate with people who you don’t have to drink to be around them

Nature has no concept of happiness or unhappiness

Only the individual transcends. Nobody reaches enlightenment or internal happiness, or does serious internal work, in group settings.

The most common mistake people make - “The idea or belief that you will be made happy because of some external circumstance”

Happiness to me is mainly not suffering, not desiring, not thinking too much about the future or the past, and really just embracing the present moment

Decision-making is everything

The smaller you can make your ego, the less desire you’ll have for the outcome you want, and the easier it is to see reality

The more of a desire I have that a decision work out a certain way, the less likely I am to see the truth

The idea that some external thing will bring me happiness or joy is completely delusional

It’s really important to be able to uncondition yourself from your habits - You need to be able to recognize habits that you picked up years ago, that may no longer serve you

The reality is that 95% of what my brain runs off to do, I don’t need to tackle at that exact moment

Modern humans don’t live enough in our bodies. We don’t live enough in our awareness. We live too much in this internal monologue in our heads.

Like everything in life, if you're willing to make the short-term sacrifice, you'll have a long-term benefit

The best workout for you is the one you’re excited about and the same goes for books – the best books to read are the ones you’re excited about reading

I try to run my brain in debugging mode as much as possible

Someone who makes decisions right 80% of time instead of 70% of time will be valued and compensate in the market hundreds of times more

I basically load my head with mental models, and they each apply to different situations

Making reading an actual habit is the most important thing and how you make it habit doesn't matter

Naval's Hierarchy of Priorities

Jealousy is such a poisonous emotion because at the end of the day, you’re no better off – you’re unhappier, and the person you’re jealous of is still successful or good looking, or whatever.

I don’t want to read everything, I just want to read the 100 greatest books over and over again

I read when I'm bored of everything else but the good news is I get bored very easily

We unconsciously pick up habits in the background and we keep them for decades. We may not even realize they’re bad for us.

I think the mind itself is a muscle and it can be trained and conditioned

Negotiations with high integrity people are usually very easy