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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Decisions and choices4 quotes
An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible. — William James · 1890We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar... Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. — William James · 1890There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. — William James · 1890The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. — Carl Jung · 1933Human nature4 quotes
You can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return. — Carl Jung · 1958Every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. — Carl Jung · 1933People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. — Carl Jung · 1944Man's nature, his passions and anxieties, are a cultural product; as a matter of fact, man himself is the most important creation and achievement of the continuous human effort, the record of which we call history. — Erich Fromm · 1941Personal growth3 quotes
Growth was seen as an endless series of daily choices and decisions in each of which one can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again. — Abraham Maslow · 1966Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist. — Karen Horney · 1945If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. — Carl Jung · 1939Civilization2 quotes
We believe that civilization has been created under the pressure of the exigencies of life at the cost of satisfaction of the instincts. — Sigmund Freud · 1917Every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. — Carl Jung · 1933Consciousness2 quotes
Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits…It is nothing jointed; it flows. A "river" or a "stream" are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life. — William James · 1890Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. — William James · 1902Reason2 quotes
We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy. — Carl Jung · 1921The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. — Carl Jung · 1933Reason and emotion2 quotes
We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy. — Carl Jung · 1921The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. — Carl Jung · 1933Religion2 quotes
A genuine first-hand religious experience... Is bound to be a heterodoxy to its witnesses, the prophet appearing as a mere lonely madman. If his doctrine prove contagious enough to spread to any others, it becomes a definite and labeled heresy. But if it then still prove contagious enough to triumph over persecution, it becomes itself an orthodoxy, its day of inwardness is over: the spring is dry; the faithful live at second hand exclusively and stone the prophets in their turn. — William James · 1902Religion is illusion, and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires. — Sigmund Freud · 1933Yin and yang2 quotes
Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other. — Carl Jung · 1912The pain of grief is just as much a part of life as the joy of love; it is, perhaps, the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment. — Colin Murray Parkes · 1972Actions have consequences1 quote
We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar... Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. — William James · 1890Beliefs1 quote
We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life. — William James · 1902Blank slate1 quote
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select-doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. — John B. Watson · 1924Certainty1 quote
Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found? — William James · 1896Change starts at home1 quote
If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. — Carl Jung · 1939Combinatorial creativity1 quote
Some people are far more sensitive to resemblances, and far more ready to point out wherein they consist, than others are. They are the wits, the poets, the inventors, the scientific men, the practical geniuses. — William James · 1890Connecting with others1 quote
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. — Carl Jung · 1933Creativity1 quote
Some people are far more sensitive to resemblances, and far more ready to point out wherein they consist, than others are. They are the wits, the poets, the inventors, the scientific men, the practical geniuses. — William James · 1890Decline of religion1 quote
You can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return. — Carl Jung · 1958Different perspectives1 quote
Genius... Means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way. — William James · 1890Distraction1 quote
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. — Carl Jung · 1944Downsides of freedom1 quote
Freedom, though it has brought him independence and rationality, has made him isolated and, thereby, anxious and powerless. — Erich Fromm · 1941Dreams1 quote
The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. — Sigmund Freud · 1899Effects of childhood1 quote
If a man has been his mother's undisputed darling he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling, the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success with it. — Sigmund Freud · 1917Effects of travel1 quote
As the traveller who has been once from home is wiser than he who has never left his own door step, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinise more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own. — Margaret Mead · 1928Emotions1 quote
We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy. — Carl Jung · 1921Evidence1 quote
Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found? — William James · 1896Existential terror1 quote
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. — Carl Jung · 1944Facing one's fears1 quote
Growth was seen as an endless series of daily choices and decisions in each of which one can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again. — Abraham Maslow · 1966Facing oneself1 quote
People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. — Carl Jung · 1944Formation of character1 quote
We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar... Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. — William James · 1890