The societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm.

What sets human beings apart from animals is not the pursuit of happiness, which occurs all across the natural world, but the pursuit of meaning, which is unique to humans.

Violence appears to be most commonly a result of threatened egotism -- that is, highly favorable views of self that are disputed by some person or circumstance. ... violence is perpetrated by a small subset of people with favorable views of themselves. ... Viewed in this light, the societal pursuit of high self-esteem for everyone may literally end up doing considerable harm.

Researchers were surprised to find that people with strong self-control spent less time resisting desires than other people did. . . . people with good self-control mainly use it not for rescue in emergencies but rather to develop effective habits and routines in school and at work.

For most of us... the problem is not a lack of goals but rather too many of them.

People with high but unstable self-esteem exhibit the greatest hostility.

Evil is not likely to result where people firmly believe that ends do not justify the means.