Why are some people born with a fire in the belly, while others need something to get their pilot light lit? Jeffrey Kluger More Quotes by Jeffrey Kluger More Quotes From Jeffrey Kluger The best you can sometimes do is learn to take a breath, count to ten and simply accept that try as you might, no, your husband will never, ever learn not to drop a wet towel on the bed. That acceptance too counts as resolving a fight. Jeffrey Kluger husbandfightingacceptance It's a deep and all but certain truth about narcissistic personalities that to meet them is to love them, but to know them well is to find them unbearable. Confidence quickly curdles into arrogance; smarts turn to smugness, charm turns to smarm. Jeffrey Kluger smartarrogancepersonality Certainly, people can get along without siblings. Single children do, and there are people who have irreparably estranged relationships with their siblings who live full and satisfying lives, but to have siblings and not make the most of that resource is squandering one of the greatest interpersonal resources you'll ever have. Jeffrey Kluger single-childsiblingchildren Narcissism is actually a clever guise adopted to mask its exact opposite, which is a deep well of self-loathing, a well of low self-esteem, rather than high self-esteem. This helps explain why narcissists are so sensitive to criticism, why narcissists tend to break into outrage if they're criticized, because their self-esteem is actually much more brittle than it seems, and once they're challenged, that mask falls apart. Jeffrey Kluger self-esteemcleverfall Narcissism, like the other personality disorders, is a condition that's known as ego-syntonic. In other words, the paranoid person really does believe that people are after him, and the narcissist really does believe that he or she is better than or more entitled than other people, and truly doesn't see why that's not the case. Jeffrey Kluger personalitybelievepeople From the time we're born, our brothers and sisters are our collaborators and coconspirators, our role models and our cautionary tales. Jeffrey Kluger role-modelsrolesbrother Your parents leave you too soon and your kids and spouse come along late, but your siblings know you when you are in your most inchoate form. Jeffrey Kluger sistersiblingbrother Narcissism falls along the axis of what psychologists call personality disorders, one of a group that includes antisocial, dependent, histrionic, avoidant and borderline personalities. But by most measures, narcissism is one of the worst, if only because the narcissists themselves are so clueless. Jeffrey Kluger axescluelessfall There's a sort of sibling moratorium when you're establishing yourself as an adult. So much of your energy has to be focused on other things like work and kids. But when people become more settled, siblings tend to regroup because now you're building a new extended family. Jeffrey Kluger siblingkidspeople Everybody loves to spend money at least some of the time - because everybody loves the stuff you can buy with it. The key to the pleasure level of any transaction is the balance between the pain of the payment and the reward of the purchased object. Jeffrey Kluger balancepainkeys There's a universe inside your head - a place of pictures and passions, of songs and sorrows. It's everything you are - and it's an utter mystery. Jeffrey Kluger passionsorrowsong Overspending is as certain a part of the holiday season as overeating. But pushing away from both the table and the cash register at least a little bit sooner can make the post-holiday hangover hurt a little bit less. Jeffrey Kluger hangoverholidayhurt Confidence quickly curdles into arrogance; smarts turn to smugness, charm turns to smarm. Jeffrey Kluger smugnesssmartarrogance A close family member once offered his opinion that I exhibit the phone manners of a goat, then promptly withdrew the charge - out of fairness to goats. Jeffrey Kluger goatsopinionphones Operating-room errors hold a special terror for patients, if only because they seem like the most avoidable kind of complications. The occasional horror stories of patients who have the wrong leg removed or the wrong knee replaced generate the most headlines, as do tales of patients whose identities are mixed up entirely. Jeffrey Kluger horror-storieserrorsidentity We pride ourselves on being the only species that understands the concept of risk, yet we have a confounding habit of worrying about mere possibilities while ignoring probabilities, building barricades against perceived dangers while leaving ourselves exposed to real ones. Jeffrey Kluger priderealworry There's only one thing harder than living in a home with an adolescent - and that's being an adolescent. The moodiness, the volatility, the wholesale lack of impulse control, all would be close to clinical conditions if they occurred at another point in life. In adolescence, they're just part of the behavioral portfolio. Jeffrey Kluger impulse-controlwould-behome A mere ape in our world may be a scholar in its own, and the low life of any beast may be a source of deep satisfaction for the beast itself. Jeffrey Kluger our-worldsatisfactionmay When we're awake, cortisol can fragment memories - one reason eyewitness crime scene accounts are so unreliable. But at night that very fragmentation allows creative recombinations of ideas. Jeffrey Kluger nightmemoriesideas As the National Football League and other pro sports increasingly reckon with the early dementia, mental health issues, suicides and even criminal behavior of former players, the risk of what's known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), is becoming clear. Jeffrey Kluger suicidefootballsports
