Neil Strauss Quotes

If you possess the ability to learn from your mistakes, then failure is literally impossible, because each rejection brings you closer to perfection.

A lot of people make the mistake of trying to defend principles in relationships. My goal is long-term happiness. And I make choices that aren’t going to undermine that goal.

The ignorant are not blissful; they are the butt of a joke they're not even aware of.

Lying is about controlling someone else’s reality, hoping that what they don’t know won’t hurt you.

The natural instincts of men seem to be to alternate between periods of love relationships and periods of hedonistic bachelorhood, with some traumatized kids thrown in as an evolutionary imperative.

Most guys who define themselves as "too nice" only behave nicely because they want everybody to like them and don’t want anyone to think badly of them. Don’t mistake being fearful and weak-minded for being nice.

The success of a relationship should be measured by its depth, not by its length.

Nature knows no tragedies or catastrophes. It knows no good or evil. It knows only creation and destruction. and one can never truly be happy and free, in the way we were as children before learning of our mortality, without at some point confronting our destruction. And all we can ask for, all we can hope for, all we can beseech God for, is to win a few battles in a war we will ultimately lose.

In order to excel at anything, there are always hurdles, obstacles, or challenges one must get past. It's what bodybuilders call the pain period. Those who push themselves, and are willing to face pain, exhaustion, humiliation, rejection, or worse, are the ones who become champions. The rest are left on the sidelines.

Only when our love for someone exceeds our need for them do we have a shot at a genuine relationship together.

There’s no better place to hide from intimacy than in a relationship.