Jonathan Haidt Quotes

You have a brake in your brain that stops you doing stupid things. The older you are, the earlier that brake comes on. When you're 20 you stop at nothing; when you're older you're cleverer than when you're 20, so your brain brake operates more often!

There's a science to brain development. The brains of teenage boys are crowded with impulse and adrenaline. By the time they hit their 20s, their brains are dominated by conscience and reason.

When I was young, you get into the point where you want to throw everything hard. And it looks good, it feels good... You get to the point, though, where it's not realistic.

Older people do a better job of managing their impulses, and so they're better able to put off putting off.

Adults devise a plan and follow it, children do what feels good.

I can be pretty reactive, and I've learned over time to be less reactive: to stop and think before I make decisions.

The amount of things I want to tweet that I get talked out of? It's probably four times a week. I'm very hotheaded.

When people have a willpower failure, it's because they haven't anticipated a situation that's going to come along.

The limbic system explodes during puberty, but the prefrontal cortex keeps maturing for another 10 years.

If you have a temper, now is the time to learn to control it. The more you do so while you are young, the more easily it will happen.

I used to have terrible tantrums. I was temperamental when I was younger. Actually, what I needed was a swift kick in the pants. What a brat!

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

Human nature is you get carried away, so we have to protect ourselves from ourselves.

Self-control is one mark of a mature person; it applies to control of language, physical treatment of others, and the appetites of the body.

When a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

My wife says I have a frontal lobe issue. Your frontal lobe controls your danger response, like, 'Whoa, I shouldn't be doing this.'

Sometimes it's good to say no. Sometimes it's good to not act impulsively.

I used to be a bit of a show-off at school, but I've calmed down now and learnt to censor myself.

You have to control your anger - you can't be a baby when you lose.

I still think carefully about what I'm going to say. I use me heart and head technique, in which the heart says, 'get stuck in, Dennis!', and the head says, 'just a minute... ' But I probably don't use this as often as some others.

As a teenager, you don't really have restraint.

Not saying I was a bad kid, but I had a lot to learn. You've just got to not be impulsive.

I just remember I'd snap over little things when I was younger a lot. It was more just trying to control yourself in certain situations and learn how to harness that anger.

Everybody has said or done the wrong thing and regretted it later, but at the time, you really couldn't help it! As you get older, you're more guarded, but that's a really tough process of learning, to be brutally honest, about some things and keeping your mouth shut about others.

A lot of people do impulsive things. They just go with their moves. I used to do that. Once I was able to control my mind, I was able to control my actions.