Dennis Prager > Quotes

“All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it’s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.”
― Dennis Prager

“The '60s redefined narcissism as idealism.”
― Dennis Prager

“People can become addicted to fame, money, and attention as deeply as they become addicted to drugs.”
― Dennis Prager, Think a Second Time: A Philosopher's Analysis of Morality, God, Evil, and the Holocaust

“Because gratitude is the key to happiness, anything that undermines gratitude must undermine happiness. And nothing undermines gratitude as much as expectations. There is an inverse relationship between expectations and gratitude: The more expectations you have, the less gratitude you will have.”
― Dennis Prager

“You cannot be happy if your primary identity is that of a victim, even if you really are one.”
― Dennis Prager

“Wisdom begins with reverence for God."
No God, no wisdom (witness your local university).”
― Dennis Prager

“Yes, there is a “secret to happiness”—and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.”
― Dennis Prager, Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual

“There is nothing about a Ph.D. that guarantees a person will be wiser, kinder, or more ethical than someone with only a high school education.”
― Dennis Prager, The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code

“Whatever one does for a living, three questions need to be confronted before it is too late: What really matters to me? What price do my spouse and kids pay for my career success? What price does my soul pay?”
― Dennis Prager, Think a Second Time: A Philosopher's Analysis of Morality, God, Evil, and the Holocaust

“The bigger the government, the more the corruption. It's almost never mentioned, and it might be the biggest of the ten principles that I am speaking of…Do you know who has created the greatest evils of history? Big governments. Big SECULAR governments. Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, all big States. Why would anybody trust the big state? It's amazing how many callers have imbued the college message that more people have been killed by religion than anything else in history. NO. More people have been killed by governments than anything else in history…….and just in the 20th century alone, and none of them were religious. You don't learn THAT in college.”
― Dennis Prager

“The Joy of Victimhood There are some clear rules about happiness. One is that you cannot be happy if your primary identity is that of a victim, even if you really are one. There are a number of reasons: People who regard themselves as victims do not see themselves as in control of their lives. Whatever happens in their lives happens to them, not by them. People who primarily regard themselves as victims see the world as unfair to them in particular. Just as the young student who always sees himself as “being picked on” is an unhappy soul, so is the person who carries that attitude into adulthood. People who regard themselves primarily as victims are angry people, and an angry disposition renders happiness impossible. People who have chosen to regard themselves as victims cannot allow themselves to enjoy life, because enjoying life would challenge their perception of themselves as victims.”
― Dennis Prager, Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual

“Unhappy poor people at least have the fantasy that money will make them happy; unhappy rich people don’t even have that.”
― Dennis Prager, Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual

“Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.”
― Dennis Prager

“Our universities teach non-white, non-Christian, and female students to find offense everywhere. American students get degrees in Finding Offense.”
― Dennis Prager, A Dark Time in America

“The phrase ‘separation of church and state,’ which appears in no founding document (only in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson), means that America must never have a state religion, not that the state be indifferent to religion.”
― Dennis Prager, Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph

“The Missing Tile syndrome is ubiquitous. If you are overweight, all you see are flat stomachs and perfect physical specimens. If you have pimples, all you see is flawless skin. Women who have difficulty getting pregnant walk around seeing only pregnant women and babies. Nor do you need to be overweight, have pimples, be balding, or want a child to believe that you have a missing tile. You can allow any real—or merely perceived—flaw to diminish your happiness.”
― Dennis Prager, Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual

“Freedom comes from moral self-control. There is no other way to achieve it.”
― Dennis Prager, The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code

“If the West believed in something, it would prevail overnight. The problem is you can't beat bad faith with no faith.”
― Dennis Prager

“The vast majority of those who are famous are not significant and the vast majority of those who are significant are not famous.”
― Dennis Prager

“Political correctness … is a euphemism for ‘that which offends the left.”
― Dennis Prager, A Dark Time in America

“You judge people in the context of their time, not in the context of ours.”
― Dennis Prager

“Americans who do not see themselves as victims — of an ‘unfair’ or ‘racist’ or ‘misogynist’ society — are more likely to vote Republican. On the other hand, Americans who see themselves as victims of American society are likely to vote Democrat. Therefore, the Democratic Party and its supportive media cultivate victimhood among almost all Americans who are not white and male.”
― Dennis Prager, A Dark Time in America

“Fear of God is a liberating emotion, freeing one from a disabling fear of evil, powerful people. This needs to be emphasized because many people see fear of God as onerous rather than liberating.”
― Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Exodus

“Only marriage combines all three forms of companionship - spouse is family, best friend, and permanent companion. This is why it is widely held that while the death of a child is the most painful loss, the death of a spouse is the most disorienting one.”
― Dennis Prager, Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual

“Second, honoring parents is how nearly all of us come to recognize that there is a moral authority above us to whom we are morally accountable.”
― Dennis Prager, The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code

“Very rarely do people make big compromises with their integrity. Almost every compromise is a small one that is easily justified. The downhill slide is usually a result of many little compromises.”
― Dennis Prager, Think a Second Time: A Philosopher's Analysis of Morality, God, Evil, and the Holocaust

“Whatever sins Christians engaged in the past, and they were extensive, the fact is that the most humane and decent countries in the world nearly all have Christian origins. That is not true of states that grew out of Islam.”
― Dennis Prager, Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph

“The only people who have no bad tendencies are dead.”
― Dennis Prager, Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual

“Who is more free? The person that with years of hardship and self-discipline became the best actor in the world, or the person that did nothing but watch actors in movies on TV all those years.”
― Dennis Prager

“Preoccupation with real evil is the greatest difference between right and left. The right was preoccupied with fighting Communism while the left (not liberals such as JFK, but the left) was preoccupied with fighting anti-Communists. The right today is preoccupied with fighting Islamism; the left is preoccupied with fighting ‘Islamophobia”
― Dennis Prager, Dennis Prager: Volume I