Luke Burgis quotes

Luke Burgis is a thought leader, entrepreneur, and author known for his work on leadership, ethics, and business strategy. With a background in philosophy and theology, Luke brings a unique perspective to the world of business. His book "Wanting" explores the role of desire in shaping our lives and decisions. As a speaker and consultant, Luke helps organizations navigate complex ethical dilemmas and develop strategies for success. Follow Luke Burgis for insightful content on leadership and personal development. Unlock your potential with Luke Burgis' innovative approach to business and ethics.

We’re more threatened by people who want the same things as us than by those who don’t.

- Luke Burgis

The pride that makes a person believe they are unaffected by or inoculated against biases, weaknesses, or mimesis blinds them to their complicity in the game.

- Luke Burgis

The more people fight, the more they come to resemble each other. We should choose our enemies wisely, because we become like them.

- Luke Burgis

People worry about what other people will think before they say something — which affects what they say. In other words, our perception of reality changes reality by altering the way we might otherwise act. This leads to a self-fulfilling circularity.

- Luke Burgis

People don’t fight because they want different things; they fight because mimetic desire causes them to want the same things.

- Luke Burgis

It’s not enough to know what is good and true. Goodness and truth need to be attractive — in other words, desirable.

- Luke Burgis

Italians have a way of saying 'I love you' that is particularly instructive: Ti voglio bene, they say. It means 'I want your good' — I want what’s best for you.

- Luke Burgis

Girard discovered that most of what we desire is mimetic or imitative, not intrinsic. Humans learn — through imitation — to want the same things other people want, just as they learn how to speak the same language and play by the same cultural rules. Imitation plays a far more pervasive role in our society than anyone had ever openly acknowledged.

- Luke Burgis

Desires are discerned, not decided. Discernment exists in the liminal space between what’s now and what’s next. Transcendent leaders create that space in their own lives, and in the lives of the people around them.

- Luke Burgis

Desire doesn’t spread like information; it spreads like energy. It passes from person to person like the energy between people at a concert or political rally. This energy can lead to a cycle of positive desire, in which healthy desires gain momentum and lead to other healthy desires, uniting people in positive ways; or it can become a cycle of negative desire, in which mimetic rivalries lead to conflict and discord.

- Luke Burgis

An unbelieved truth is often more dangerous than a lie. The lie in this case is the idea that I want things entirely on my own, uninfluenced by others, that I’m the sovereign king of deciding what is wantable and what is not. The truth is that my desires are derivative, mediated by others, and that I’m part of an ecology of desire that is bigger than I can fully understand. By embracing the lie of my independent desires, I deceive only myself. But by rejecting the truth, I deny the consequences that my desires have for other people and theirs for me.

- Luke Burgis

The life of each person can’t be understood in a snapshot, a resume, or a social media profile. We have to enter fully into the stories of each individual if we hope to know and love them as God does. He is the Author of every human life. And God is an author worth reading.

- Luke Burgis

Each person has a unique and unrepeatable vocation. If it is not discovered, embraced, and lived, it is lost to the world forever.

- Luke Burgis

Rivalry is a function of proximity.

- Luke Burgis

It’s easy to be an armchair contrarian. It’s hard to take contrarian action: to question the dominant narrative, to be honest with yourself, to tell the truth even when the immediate outcome is pain.

- Luke Burgis