40 Life Lessons I Know at 40 (That I Wish I Knew at 20)

Mark Manson · 9 Mar 2024

Mark Manson did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
How a person treats themselves determines who they let into their life and how those people treat them.

Their wordsIf you treat yourself poorly, then you will also unconsciously seek out and tolerate others who treat you poorly.
Our reading
Life's most valuable things, like health, wealth and knowledge, compound slowly over long periods of time.
Mental modelCompounding

Their wordsThe most valuable things in life compound over a long period of time
Our reading
Most people are fundamentally good, which makes the risk of trusting them worth taking.

Their wordsMost people are good. And while you might get hurt or embarrassed sometimes, the alternative is just way worse.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.