The survival of our earliest ancestors depended on their ability to communicate with one another well before the invention of language. They evolved … - Robert Greene

Let us call this quality the Original Mind. This mind looked at the world more directly — not through words and received ideas. It was flexible and receptive to new information. Retaining a memory of this Original Mind, we cannot help but feel nostalgia for the intensity with which we used to experience the world. As the years pass, this intensity inevitably diminishes. We come to see the world through a screen of words and opinions; our prior experiences, layered over the present, color what we see. We no longer look at things as they are, noticing their details, or wonder why they exist. Our minds gradually tighten up. We become defensive about the world we now take for granted, and we become upset if our beliefs or assumptions are attacked.

Admiration is the polar opposite of envy—we are acknowledging people’s achievements, celebrating them, without having to feel insecure.

You must never assume that what people say or do in a particular moment is a statement of their permanent desires.