There was a time in human history, not too long ago, in which devoting yourself to knowledge and wisdom was a choice with huge implications. Written knowledge was scarce and had to be sought with great difficulty. To study, one needed to choose a school or library, leave their life behind, and travel to a hub of books and thinkers. There were only a handful of places for collected wisdom to be found. And even still, you could never access every library in the world. By circumstance, geography, culture, and even the logistics of printing, book-binding, and distribution, you’d always be left to wonder, “What else is out there?”
Things have changed. Now, while you are on the toilet, you can use your pocket computer to access more of the Library of Congress than you will have time to read in your lifetime.
Living in the information era as we do now, knowledge and wisdom are ubiquitous. It is a great privilege, yet it can be overwhelming. You can read the exact, most insightful quote you need to hear, and it will blend in with the rest of what you watched or read over breakfast.
So, things are a lot more about curation now.
This page is a curated collection of curated collections. It is a tribute to the tidal wave of wisdom found across blogs, articles, and other media online.
You’ll find more wisdom on this one page than you can expect to absorb. It is valuable. Like the other Mood pages, it will tickle your brain and stir you up, thinking about the big things in life.
And, like mist, you may feel it in the air without actually getting wet, per se.
See what you think about what you find here.
What Is the “Mist”?
You’ll find many models, theories, and metaphors across this site. Some are original. Some are curated and presented from other research. All of them assist in understanding well-being and its moving parts.
One of the most helpful models you’ll find is the Landscape and Cornerstones of Meaning.
In this metaphorical model we, the individual, are represented by a ghostly figure, found on this landscape among both lived experience and the stars of spiritual (and non) traditions, standing on the boundary between ‘of’ and ‘in’. Meaning of different kinds mix to bring a deep sense of well-being. We find wisdom in experience, from social influence, perhaps from religious practice…
And that’s not all. Notice the milky white fog around the human figure.
This mist represents the countless grains of wisdom we find in everyday life which, though we may see them, don’t exactly stick.They have their value, indeed. And, they highlight the importance of not only what we learn, but how we learn.
If you haven’t already checked it out, an ever more zoomed-out overview of the models on this site can be found here:
Mist can be great. And, it can be a little bit distracting if that’s where you go looking for personal growth too often.
Keep in mind that mist—the quick and fleeting life advice you get on tiktok or the like—make for uncertain terrain and may not be the best way of finding the life wisdom you’re seeking.
As you explore the collected resources below, consider how you might make the most of them. Bask in the misty goodness. Though the quotes and ideas may not saturate you and alter your journey of personal growth, they may be just the dose of healthy advice you need right now.
Articles
Aging and Adulting
- George Saunders’s Advice to Graduates – A wisened and insightful message to new college graduates.
- What I Wish I Knew at Every Age – Creatives, including Lisa Congdon, Debbie Millman, Tina Roth Eisenberg, and Ken Done, share what they wish they had known during different decades of their careers.
- Why Am I Getting Happier As I Get Older? – Our societal and personal narratives on our aging are at odds. Are we bored or content, selfish or stewards, irrelevant or essential?
Bits from Mark Manson
- 10 Life Lessons to Excel in Your 30s – Over 600 people, age 40 and older, weigh in on the life lessons they learned in their 30s.
- 10 tips from 2020 – 1,273 people share their best life lessons from 2020.
- The One Rule for Life – ‘Act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means.’ Mark Manson presents Kant’s moralistic imperetive as the ultimate rule by which to live life.
- Personal Values: How to Know Who You Really Are – How one’s cornerstones are defined can be extremely different from person to person.
- Why We All Need Philosophy – Philosophy can help us live more meaningful lives and build better societies. We just need a framework of philosophy that fits our modern-day problems.
Spirituality
- Why I Won’t Teach My Child to Believe in God – A personal journey from undoubting faith to disbelief, in four acts.
- Dangerous Spirituality – An article exploring the quests and motivations of Howard Thurman, written by a black historian for OnBeing.
- Spiritual Practices Hidden in Plain Sight – An author shares special moments of reflection from an average week. A relatable memoir.
- 100 Most Spiritually Influential People – A Watkins list.10 different cultural lens on MOL told as vignettes.
- The Fourth Way – 10 different cultural lens on MOL told as vignettes.
- Religion for the Nonreligious – An excellent exploration of religion and spirituality in the context of evolution, consciousness, and culture.
- How Religion Got in the Way – A brave yet funny rebuke of religion in our collective human quest to understand existence.
Other Misty Articles
- Reading Ourselves to Death – An essay about the modern onslaught of reading on our days…especially in the form of emails and texts.
- How to Be Successful – An eloquent article offering tips on success by focusing on 13 different virtues.
- Walk Away from Anything That Doesn’t Make You Insanely Happy – The “new you” can’t be built in the midst of the auld lang syne.
- For Life Advice From a Grade Schooler, Press 2 – A new hotline, an art project by a small California elementary school, was receiving 9,000 calls an hour from people seeking cheerful advice during trying times.
A Collection from James Altucher
- A Letter I Would Send to My Teenage Self – James Altucher shares a message to his past about wisdom and coming of age.
- The 13 Things I Regret Not Telling Her – James Altucher reflects on life advice he would have shared with his daughter when she was young.
- 11 Tips for Living a Better Life – Kernels of advice from James Altucher on when life feels like too much.
Challenge & Acceptance
- 40 Short Big Skills For a Successful Modern Life – The ability to synthesize many skills to work on a long-term goal.
- Too many problems? Maybe coping isn’t the answer – A short article on the balance of tackling vs. coping with life’s problems.
- It’s worse than you think – An article about accepting the less-than-ideal we always find ourselves in.
Death
- What Matters In the End – Atul Gawande discusses the most important aspects of life, and how we decide what that is.
- Ten Ways to Make Your Time Matter – Accepting our mortality helps us let go of busyness and focus on what’s most important to us in order to live a happier, more meaningful life.
Modernity
- How the Modern World Makes Us Mentally Ill – A short article on a very big consideration: how are our minds unfit for the world in which we’re living?
- The Challenges of Modernity – More thoughts from the School of Life on the unique challenges of today.
- 36 Ways to Live Differently – “To live better means that you’ll live differently—somehow, you’ll make some kind of change.”
Habits
- 10 Happiness Practices a Doctor Prescribes to His Patients – In the face of COVID-19, one doctor prescribes habits for health and happiness.
- These are Habits to Avoid – The Daily Stoic shares a short list.
Philosophy & Perspective
- The ‘Tyranny’ of Positive Thinking Can Threaten Your Health and Happiness – A stark look at ‘toxic positivity.’
- ‘The Meaning of Life from Stanford – Here is Stanford’s philosophy department presenting an overview of the ‘meaning of life’ in philosophy.
- Wikipedia on Meaning of LifeAre Our Minds Just Our Brains? – A debate on minds, matter and mechanism.
- Philosophy cannot resolve the question ‘How should we live?’ – A short but thoughtful article from ReasonAndMeaning.
A standout collection: All Atlantic Articles by Arthur Brooks – There is a wealth of quality articles here, by one of the most prolific ‘happiness’ writers alive today.
A Collection from The Marginalian
The Marginalian is a great website with well-written articles connecting philosophy to everyday life.
On Meaning
- Viktor Frankl on the Human Search for Meaning – “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
- The Day Dostoyevsky Discovered the Meaning of Life in a Dream – “And it is so simple… You will instantly find how to live.”
- Pythagoras on the Purpose of Life and the Meaning of Wisdom – Abiding insight into the aim of human existence from the man who revolutionized science and coined the word “philosopher.”
On Aging
- How to Grow Old – A quick article about Bertrand Russell on what makes a fulfilling life.
- The Measure of a Life Well Lived – Henry Miller on growing old, the perils of success, and the secret of remaining young at heart.
More from the Marginalian
- A Process for the Transfer of Energy and Feeling – George Saunders on the key to great storytelling.
- 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings – Some fluid reflections on keeping a solid center.
- How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives – Annie Dillard on choosing presence over productivity.
- The Island of Knowledge – How to live with mystery in a culture obsessed with certainty and definitive answers.
- Albert Camus on Happiness and Love, Illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton – “If those whom we begin to love could know us as we were before meeting them … they could perceive what they have made of us.”
- How to Find Fulfilling Work – On the art-science of “allowing the various petals of our identity to fully unfold.”
Commencement Speeches
- Commencement Addresses – A collection of insightful addresses from the Marginalian.
- The Human Kaleidoscope and the Unwritten Story of the World – “Radiolab” Creator Jad Abumrad’s superb Caltech commencement address.
- How to Save a World – Rachel Carson’s advice to posterity.
- Acts That Amplify – Ann Hamilton on art, the creative value of unproductive time, and the power of not knowing.
- Seamus Heaney’s Advice on Life – “The true and durable path into and through experience involves being true … to your own solitude, true to your own secret knowledge.”
- The Greatest Commencement Address of All Time – Joseph Brodsky’s six rules for playing the game of life like a winner.
On Philosophy
- Galileo vs. God – The father of modern science on religion, truth, and human nature.
- Robinson Jeffers on – Moral beauty, the interconnectedness of the universe, and the key to peace of mind.
- Seasons in a Pandemic – Mary Shelley on what makes life worth living and nature’s beauty as a lifeline to regaining sanity.
- Love Is the Last Word – Aldous Huxley on knowledge vs. understanding and the antidote to our existential helplessness.
On Spirituality
- The Mortality Paradox – “Our overblown intellectual faculties seem to be telling us both that we are eternal and that we are not.”
- Is There a God? – Stephen Hawking gives the definitive answer to the eternal question.
- Bertrand Russell on Immortality – Why religion exists, and what “The Good Life” really means.
Books
There are so many good books out there. You can find a list of the best books on Positive Psychology and well-being HERE.
The ones below are more on the ‘misty’ side. They’re ok. And, note that they’re not comprehensive books on living a good life.
Here are a few well-curated book lists from elsewhere, too:
- 30 Books I’m Glad I Read Before 30 – A collection of classics from a blogger couple.
- Books I’ve Read’ from Derek Sivers – Lots of really solid choices here, and insightful reviews too!
- Five Books – An expertly curated reader’s blog, framing each article as a themed collection of 5 recommended, reviewed books.
Adulting
Your Turn: How to Be an Adult
In the twentieth century, psychologists came up with five markers of adulthood: finish your education, get a job, leave home, marry, and have children. Since then, every generation has been held to those same markers. Yet so much has changed about the world and living in it since that sequence was formulated. All of those markers are choices, and they’re all valid, but any one person’s choices along those lines do not make them more or less an adult.
How to Survive The Modern World
Making sense of, and finding calm in, unsteady times. A guide that explores the challenges living in the 21st century can pose to our mental wellbeing.
Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self
Nuggets of wisdom offered by an Academy Award–nominated actor (James Woods), a popular comedian (Aasif Mandvi), and a world-famous novelist (Jodi Picoult) to their sixteen-year-old selves.
Folded Wisdom: Notes from Dad on Life, Love, and Growing Up
A father collects colorful notes for his teenage daughters over years and published them into a book.
A Visual Learner’s Guide to Being a Grown-Up
A book of infographics on adult life.
Death
Obit
Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives
A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last
In his new book, Stephen Levine, author of the perennial best-seller Who Dies?, teaches us how to live each moment, each hour, each day mindfully–as if it were all that was left.
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
A collection of vignettes of afterlives that provide insight into the here and now.
Discovery
Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
There is no cure for the human condition: life is hard. But Kieran Setiya believes philosophy can help. He offers us a map for navigating rough terrain, from personal trauma to the injustice and absurdity of the world.
Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier
A book from prolific positive psych author Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey.
How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
This book is a fascinated biography of Michel Eyquem de Montaine, a man far ahead of his time who was constantly asking ‘how do I live?’ Both a summary of his life/work, and an ironic presentation of his ideological context, the book offers companionship, wisdom, and charm from a life over 400 years ago.
The Stranger
Behind the subterfuge, Camus explores what he termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd” and describes the condition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion that characterized so much of twentieth-century life.
How Are You, Really?: Living Your Truth One Answer at a Time
A book about confronting your authentic desires and subverting the easy path of convincing ourselves otherwise. The author’s website is here. And here is an article about her work from the Good Life Project.
Meaning and Purpose
For Small Creatures Such as We
Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
I’ve Been Thinking
Reflections, prayers, and meditations for a meaningful life.
The Lion Tracker’s Guide To Life
A book about finding your gifts and purpose. Here is an interview about the book with Tim Ferris.
Artsy
Metaphors We Live By
Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide an understanding of countless other subjects.
The Philosophy of Snoopy
Part of the Peanuts Guide to Life series.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
From British illustrator, artist, and author Charlie Mackesy comes a journey for all ages that explores life’s universal lessons, featuring 100 color and black-and-white drawings.
Other Misty Books
Reinvent the Wheel
How Top Leaders Leverage Well-Being for Success
How to Live: 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion
Not quite non-fiction, not quite self-help. It’s a work of art about conflicting philosophies.
God in Proof
The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet
Unlearn: 101 Simple Truths for a Better Life
The internationally bestselling self-empowerment book from influencer, rapper, and spoken word artist Humble the Poet.
The Gift: 14 Lessons to Save Your Life
A guide to stopping destructive patterns and imprisoning thoughts to find freedom and joy in life—now updated to address the challenges of the pandemic and a world in crisis.
Organizations
- Everthrive – A blog with essays about disconnecting from distractions, slowing down, and focusing on what is truly important.
- The Existential-Humanistic Institute – Training Therapists in Existential-Humanistic Practice.
- Auroville – A progressive town in India, founded in 1968, that aims to be a progressive international melting pot of peace and harmony. There are many articles, documentaries, and an episode on a netflix docuseries about it.
- Civic Saturday – A civic analogue to a faith gathering. Like church, but not about religion.
- Mindvalley – A life coaching app (iOS/Android), website, and community. Full of resources…and, it leans pretty strong in the career / ‘success’ direction.
- The Grand – Making the world a less lonely place. This group coaching experience gives people space to be vulnerable and honest about real challenges and change we all navigate at work and at home.
- Cirkel – a platform connecting a community of professionals ages 20-70+ who connect for two-way career support and mentorship.
- You’re Going to Die – An group whose mission is to normalize death and talking about it. They offer many things, even music on mortality.
- .Reimagine – Let’s reimagine loss, adversity, and mortality, and channel life’s challenges into meaning and growth. Live events and more.
Posters
Podcasts
- The Philosopher’s Zone – The simplest questions often have the most complex answers. The Philosopher’s Zone is your guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics.
- The Aware Show – A self-help podcast with Lisa Garr.
- Super Soul Sessions – Oprah talks with special guests about all things Spiritual.
- Oh No! with Ross and Carrie – From the NYT: “Ross Blocher and Carrie Poppy are former evangelical Christians who channel their mutual fascination with belief into this weekly show, which turns skepticism into a wry, revealing art form.”
- Tara Brach – Tara Brach, Ph.D is an internationally known meditation teacher and author of bestselling Radical Acceptance and True Refuge. Tara shares a weekly guided meditation and talk that blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices.
- The Good Life Project – What does it mean to live a good life? What’s the role of happiness, meaning, work, love, purpose, kindness, friendship, and more?
- Sugar Calling – A wisdom-seeking podcast, turning to some of the most prolific writers of our time in the older generations.
Podcast Episodes
- The 6 Pillars of a Happy, Healthy Life – A best of collection from Frank Lipman’s book.
- Giving Your Heart Over to Real Change – Sharon Salzberg discusses her new book about Mindfulness and peace in the world.
- Sean Carroll on the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe – A fantastic, boldly existential interview on Kaufman’s Psychology Podcast.
- Tim Ferris on Love, Loss, and Meaning – A ‘best of’ episode from the Good Life Project.Inner Mastery, Outer Impact – Hitendra Wadhwa gives a wisdom-first interview on the Psychology Podcast.
- Just One Thing: Simple Practices – A list of practical exercises from Rick Hanson.
Quotes
Quote Collections from Elsewhere
- 35 Winnie the Pooh Quotes for Every Facet of Life – “Love is taking a few steps backward, maybe even more…to give way to the happiness of the person you love.”
- 30 Quotes I’m Pondering and Revisiting – A quick list from Tim Ferris.
- 28 Quotes on Therapy – From PositivePsychology.com, this collection is about therapy and why we need it.
- Quotes on the “Meaning of Life” – A list of quotes from GoodReads.
- Quotes on the “Meaning of Life” – A list of quotes from BrainyQuote.
- Quotes on the “Meaning of Life” – A list of quotes from Better World Quotes with illustrations of their sources.
- Quotes on the “Meaning of Life” – A list of quotes from Wikiquote.
- And a list of some more – The Purpose of Life Is to Discover Your Gift. The Meaning of Life Is to Give Your Gift Away.
- 21 Viktor Frankl Quotes – On the meaning of life, love, and suffering.
On Consideration
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“In the book of life’s questions, the answers are not in the back.” – Charles Schultz
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“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” – James Thurber
On Death
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“Life’s ultimate statistic is the same for all people: One out of one dies.” – George Bernard Shaw
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“A ‘How To’ list for dealing with stress and upset, in light of the fact that you’re going to die someday: 1. Let it go.” – Anonymous
Quotes on Living Meaningfully
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“Whatever purifies you, that’s the right path.” – Rumi
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“Don’t prioritize your looks my friend, as they won’t last the journey.Your sense of humor though, will only get better with age.Your intuition will grow and expand like a majestic cloak of wisdom.Your ability to choose your battles will be fine-tuned to perfection.Your capacity for stillness, for living in the moment, will blossom.Your desire to live each and every moment will transcend all other wants.Your instinct for knowing what (and who) is worth your time, will grow and flourish like ivy on a castle wall.Don’t prioritize your looks my friend, they will change forever more, that pursuit is one of much sadness and disappointment.Prioritize the uniqueness that makes you you, and the invisible magnet that draws in other like-minded souls to dance in your orbit.These are the things which will only get better.” – Judi Dench
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“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shootin’ . . .what a ride!” – Anonymous
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“A good life is an intentional life. I will not define myself simply as a reaction to who others want me to be. Nor be ruled by meaningless distraction or maniacal busyness without purpose. I am here to live, not surrender. To embrace meaning. To love unconditionally. To give without expectation. To settle into solitude. To make meaning. To participate, not watch. To create, not copy. To be unapologetically me. To rise up, and help others rise. I believe that this moment seeds every moment. Vulnerability is a virtue. Life is growth, stagnation is death. Presence beats presents. Compassion is a gateway to connection. Life is a co-creative process. With rare exception, everything is better when it’s shared. These things I know. These things, on my best days, I aspire to live. And, yes, I am now and always will be a work in progress. It’s called being human. A good life is not a place at which I arrive, it is a lens through which I see and create my world. It is lived this moment. And the next. And the next. Let’s do this!” – The Good Life Project Community Pledge
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“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” – Dolly Parton
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“A good life is an intentional life. I will not define myself simply as a reaction to who others want me to be. Nor be ruled by meaningless distraction or maniacal busyness without purpose. I am here to live, not surrender. To embrace meaning. To love unconditionally. To give without expectation. To settle into solitude. To make meaning. To participate, not watch. To create, not copy. To be unapologetically me. To rise up, and help others rise. I believe that this moment seeds every moment. Vulnerability is a virtue. Life is growth, stagnation is death. Presence beats presents. Compassion is a gateway to connection. Life is a co-creative process. With rare exception, everything is better when it’s shared. These things I know. These things, on my best days, I aspire to live. And, yes, I am now and always will be a work in progress. It’s called being human. A good life is not a place at which I arrive, it is a lens through which I see and create my world. It is lived this moment. And the next. And the next. Let’s do this!” – The Good Life Project Community Pledge
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“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.”
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“In life, there are two important moments. The day you are born and the moment you realize why.”
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“Near the end of his life, I asked (Steve Jobs) about the meaning of all this. He said that he’d learned … that life is like a river. At first, you think that if you’re successful, you get to take many things out of the river, products people have made or ideas they’ve come up with. But he said, “Eventually in life, you realize that it’s not what you get to take out of the river, it’s what you get to put into the river.” — Walter Isaacson
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“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to live the width of it as well.” – Diane Ackerman
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“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.”
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“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
Quotes on Perspective
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“Humans don’t know what they’re doing. You can say we want everybody to be happy, or we want everyone to have good health, but what kind of goal is that? That’s the goal of your family dog.” – E.O. Wilson
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“What makes life worth living? No child asks itself that question. To children, life is self-evident. Life goes without saying: whether it is good or bad makes no difference. This is because children don’t see the world, don’t observe the world, don’t contemplate the world, but are so deeply immersed in the world that they don’t distinguish between it and their own selves. Not until … a distance appears between what they are and what the world is, does the question arise: what makes life worth living?” – Karl Ove Knausgård
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“The Good Life is not a destination, but rather a lens through which we see the world.” – Anonymous
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Joseph Campbell’s koan: “What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light, or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle?”
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“What was once called the objective world is a sort of Rorschach inkblot, into which each culture, each system of science and religion, each type of personality, reads a meaning only remotely derived from the shape and colour of the blot itself.” — Lewis Mumford
More ‘Misty’ Quotes
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Marilyn Nelson’s response. She describes prayer as the experience of being “quiet enough to feel held, to feel the embrace of the divine, to realize that I am a part of something vaster than vast; and to feel that, to recognize that, to feel thankful for it, and to hope that by opening myself to that awareness, that I am allowing some of that to come through me.”
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“Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.”
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“The function of man is to live, not to exist.” – Jack London
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“Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shootin’…What a ride!” – Anonymous
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“Make things you want to see; learn about yourself and the world; put on your own shows; make your friends laugh; try not to drive yourself nuts or be too hard on yourself; try to be a good person; do what it is you feel like you should be doing.” — Nathaniel Russell
Some folks even get ‘misty’ quotes tattooed on them!
…shame about the typos…
Wisdom Lists
Some favorites among those “top 30 things to remember before you…” articles.
Adulting
- 34 Mistakes on the Way to 34 Years Old – Each a paragraph, Ryan Holiday shares a constructive lens on his past for his readers’ futures.
- The 30 Things I Learned By The Age Of 30 – A list of lessons on general life wisdom.
- How To Live A Full Life (And Leave Nothing On The Table) By 30 – A poignant list of 40 tips on living life. Highly practical.
- 33 Things I Stole From People Smarter Than Me on the Way to 33 – From Ryan Holiday…some meditations on strategy and life.
- 116 Principles for Business, Life, and Learning – General wisdom from the Junto blog.
- The Days Are Long But the Decades Are Short – Sam Altman offers 36 pieces of insights after turning 30.
- 30 Lessons for Living – Author Karl A. Pillemer shares life lessons from older Americans.
- Life Lessons We Should Have Learned in Our 20s – Jeffrey Froh shares his advice on how to thrive in your 20s and beyond through a mix of science, stories, Scripture, and Greek mythology.
Ancient Wisdom
- The Art of Living Well (Ancient Wisdom For Modern Life) – “Learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.”
- 11 Ancient Solutions for Modern Malaise – The Roman philosopher Seneca’s essay “On a Happy Life” is full of lessons that are as pertinent today as they were two millennia ago.
“Rules” for Living
- Every self-help book ever, boiled down to 11 simple rules – The basic advice in hundreds of bestsellers is older than you think.
- 100 (Short) Rules for a Better Life – One-sentence meditations from Ryan Holiday.
- My Twelve Rules for Life – Russ Roberts shares his top tips.
- After 45 Birthdays, Here Are ’12 Rules for Life’ – Don’t lose friends over politics. Don’t lose a spouse over pickles. From Megan McArdle.
- Ten Commandments For Living From Philosopher Bertrand Russell – His ten rules that, if he could promulgate, he would.
Questions and Prompts
- 12 Questions That Will Change Your Life – A dozen questions that cut to the bone.
- 3 Questions You Need To Answer Before You’ll Have The Life You Want – Decide your why, decide how you want to live, and decide to be ok with what others do.
- 43 Prompts that Will Change Your Life For The Better – A list of leading questions that will guide you along your path.
Things to Avoid
- 40 Guaranteed Ways To Ruin Your Own Life – (Without Even Noticing It)
- The 20 Things You Need To Let Go To Be Happy – A quick list of things to avoid.
General Lists of Wisdom
Ordered from best to less-best.
- 100 Little Ideas – A list of ideas, in no particular order and from different fields, that help explain how the world works.
- The Best Advice You’ve Ever Received (and Are Willing to Pass On) – A crowdsourced list of advice, arranged by topic, curated by the NYT.
- 100 ways to slightly improve your life without really trying – A fun list from the Guardian.
- 88 Important Truths I’ve Learned About Life – From a seasoned, niche blogger. Each is only one sentence.
- 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice – Wisdom can come from anywhere. This time, from the Technium blog.
- 50 Ideas That Changed My Life – Theories from David Perell.
- Oliver Burkeman’s last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life – “After more than a decade of writing life-changing advice, I know when to move on. Here’s what else I learned.”
- 100 Tips for a Better Life – From the Less Wrong blog, categorized and insightful.
- 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice – From the Technium blog, lots of grains of wisdom in one place.
- 100 Simple Truths – From a digital designer.
- I Read 300 Self-Help Books, These Are The Top 3 Life Lessons I Learned’ – It is OK to feel pain, Accepting my reality as it is, Being open to the connection between mind and body.
- 30 Ways to Live Life to the Fullest – A general list of one-sentence tips.
- Ideas That Changed My Life – 10 big ideas, well stated.
- 33 Things I Stole From People Smarter Than Me – Take them, adapt them, and apply them to your life.
- 36 Ways to Live Differently – Pick several of these and consider how applying them might impact your life.
- 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known – A helpful list of tips from Technium.
- 36 Lessons I Live By – Chelsea Dinsmore shares some of her host helpful life tips.
- People Are Sharing Effective Psychological Tricks They Use In Everyday Life, And I’m Blown Away By Some – A general wisdom Buzzfeed article that reads like a BuzzFeed article.
- 20 Ideas That Changed My Life – Safal Niveshak reflects on big ideas from great thinkers.
- 29 Life-Changing Lessons That Will Make You Successful And More Strategic – From Ryan Holiday on Medium.
Of course, ‘Happiness’ isn’t that simple.
Videos
Wisdom Lists
Dean James Ryan’s 5 Essential Questions In Life
Wait what?, I wonder…, couldn’t we at least?, how can I help?, and what truly matters?
The Eight Rules of The School of Life
The massively influential organization shares its eight rules in a beautiful video: accept imperfection, friendship, know your insanity, in what ways are you mad?, accept your idiocy, good enough, beyond romanticism, cheerful despair, transcend yourself.
The 5 LESSONS In Life People Learn TOO LATE
A collection of ideas from 5 modern thinkers.
On Meaning
A Kindergardener explains the meaning of life
If you were looking for motivation here it is.
22 vs Earth
A 9-minute Pixar short. Set before the events of Pixar’s “Soul,” 22 refuses to go to Earth, enlisting a gang of 5 other new souls in her attempt at rebellion. However, as her cohorts’ activities lead to unexpected results, 22’s subversive plot may actually lead to a surprising revelation about the meaning of life. You can find the whole thing on Disney+.
Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks a simple, but difficult question: why do we search for self-transcendence? Why do we attempt to lose ourselves? In a tour through the science of evolution by group selection, he proposes a provocative answer.
Philosophy
Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body?
Maryam Alimardani investigates.
A Serious Man: Can Life Be Understood?
A brilliantly written look at the movie ‘A Serious Man’ as a philosophical masterpiece. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, it’s well worth the watch.
Optimistic Nihilism
Perhaps the best secular philosophy for living with hope and happiness.
Poignant Wisdom
Speech from ‘The Professor’
Johnny Depp’s character shares words of wisdom in the face of death. (IMDB)
Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
In his moving last presentation, Randy Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. Here is another video of Pausch giving a final farewell.
The Lies Our Culture Tells Us About What Matters
and a better way to live. A TED talk by David Brooks.
Quality Video Lists
- Kurzgesagt, In a Nutshell – Some of the best educational videos found online, Kurzgesagt’s Youtube channel covers big-picture, deep ideas with brilliant animation.
- School of Life – School of Life’s Youtube channel contains more quality videos than you can imagine.
- TED’s ‘Big Questions’ List – A collection of lecture videos on the biggest questions life has to offer.
- TED’s ‘Life’ List – A collection of TED Talks (and more) on the topic of Life.
- Commencement Speeches – The web’s central place to find a curated list of the best commencement speeches
Websites
Here is a handful of honorable mention, often ‘misty,’ websites.
- Soulspring – A wellness and spirituality blog coverying health, habits, and happiness.
- Experience Life – Life Time magazine’s companion blog website, full of healthy living tips and articles.
- Daily Stoic – A website covering nearly all things Positive Psych, through the lens of Stoicism.
- The Good Life Project – An organization dedicated to informing people about the keys to well-being, with their podcast, books, and more.
Related Sections
Another page from the ‘Mood’ section of the site, Death More Intimate is a tribute to the normality of death, and the wisdom of approaching its reality candidly.
This section offers a helpful visual metaphor, the Town of Challenge, to guide you through and learn the power of getting out of your comfort zone.
Often their own mix of meaningful and ‘misty,’ the spiritual traditions of the world are rich with wisdom. On these pages you’ll find a summary of each major world religion.
This section explores the ins and out of Grief: how to deal with loss, how to support a friend that is grieving, and how to reckon with the natural course of a life that, naturally, ends.
One of the most extensive sections on the site, the Purpose section covers the ins and outs of applied meaning, like what hinders Purpose, how to achieve work with Purpose, and more.
YSL is a philosophical framework that asks us what role our ideologies play in our lived experience, together with ‘reality.’
Often their own mix of meaningful and ‘misty,’ the spiritual traditions of the world are rich with wisdom. On these pages you’ll find a summary of each major world religion.
This section is an overview of what ‘well-being’ really is: what is a ‘good life,’ and what elements compose it.
This page offers an overview of the models you’ll find on this site.
A particular, important look at one of our most detailed models, this is the same as the one at the top of this page, with more explanation.
This page is a fun romp through the big questions of life!
What is the difference between a life considered deeply, and one considered with less depth? This page asks us to consider our own depth.
So…Now What?
Feel misty now?
This page offers more little grains of wisdom than one can deeply absorb in a lifetime. But how much of it stuck?
Mist is…nice. The modern world as it is, you’re likely to endure a barrage of ideas over media every day. Most of it won’t stick. And yet, it’s probably better for those droplets of mist to be wisdom than to be, say, entertainment.
So, next time you’re curating your feed, perhaps curate your sources for more misty wisdom. And, even better, bring focus to the mist when you can. Learn by reading, practicing, doing, considering, and repeating. 🙂
The purpose of this website is to give you the content and strategies to create rivers and streams of joy.
What Mist does NOT offer, this site does: clear models that make sense of the “noise” of life.
So, if you’ve only seen this one page, you are strongly encouraged to check out other sections, where you will find a sense of the whole, depth of the parts, and ways to live life powerfully . . . to live a life you love.
