100 Quotes by Steven Kotler

Nothing’s too gnarly.

Where–if anywhere–do our actual limits lie?

If we are hunting the highest version of ourselves, then we need to turn work into play and not the other way round.

With the prefrontal cortex down-regulated, most impulse control mechanisms go offline too. For people who aren’t used to this combination, the results can be expensive.

How many people have stopped playing guitar, writing poetry, or painting watercolors – activities packed with flow triggers – because these are also activities that do not squarely fit into culturally acceptable responsibility categories like “career” or “children”?

Ecstatic technology isn’t limited to silicon chips and display screens. As John Lilly’s early research established, it’s the knowledge of how to tweak the knobs and levers in our brain. When we get it right, it produces those invaluable sensations of selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness, and richness.

This is what the self-help books don’t tell you. Fully alive and deeply committed is a risky business. Once you strip away the platitudes, a life of passion and purpose will always cost, as T. S. Eliot reminds us, “Not less than everything.

This is our mystery: a rare and radical state of consciousness where the impossible becomes possible.

During a peak experience,” Maslow explained, “the individual experiences an expansion of self, a sense of unity, and meaningfulness in life. The experience lingers in one’s consciousness and gives a sense of purpose, integration, self-determination and empathy.