Quotes by Psychologists - Page 5

Free man is by necessity insecure thinking man by necessity uncertain.
Erich Fromm
Sometimes I found that in my happy moments I could not believe that I had ever been miserable.
Joanna Field
The last if not the greatest of the human freedoms: to choose their own attitude in any given circumstance.
Bruno Bettelheim
When you have to make a choice and don't make it that is in itself a choice.
William James
There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
William James
I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst take the risk.
Dr. Joyce Brothers
No matter how lovesick a woman is she shouldn't take the first pill that comes along.
Dr. Joyce Brothers
I will be dead in a few months. But it hasn't given me the slightest anxiety or worry. I always knew I was going to die.
B.F. Skinner
A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because looked at through the myth all evidence supports that myth.
Edward de Bono
Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives . . . most of the things that are interesting important and human are the results of creativity . . . when we are involved in it we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Since changes are going on anyway the great thing is to learn enough about them so that we will be able to lay hold of them and turn them in the direction of our desires. Condi-tions and events are neither to be fled from nor passively acquiesced in they are to be utilized and directed.
John Dewey
We cannot remain consistent with the world save by growing inconsistent with our past selves.
Havelock Ellis
We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.
William James
We learn courageous action by going forward whenever fear urges us back.
David Seabury
Courage isrequired not only in a person's occasional crucial decision for his own freedom but in the little hour-to-hour decisions which place the bricks in the structure of his building of himself into a person who acts with freedom and responsibility.
Rollo May
Being "brave" means doing or facing something frightening. ... Being "fearless" means being without fear.
Penelope Leach
To say a person is a coward has no more meaning than to say he is lazy: It simply tells us that some vital potentiality is unrealized or blocked.
Rollo May
The hallmark of courage in our age of conformity is the capacity to stand on one's convictions-not obstinately or defiantly (these are gestures of defensiveness not courage) nor as a gesture of retaliation but simply because these are what one believes.
Rollo May
Confidence ... is directness and courage in meeting the facts of life.
John Dewey
Courage is the basic virtue for everyone so long as he continues to grow to move ahead.
Rollo May
A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses it is an idea that possesses the mind.
Robert Bolton
Americans who make more of marrying for love than any other people also break up more of their marriages but the figure reflects not so much the failure of love as the determination of people not to live without it.
Morton Hunt
Tenderness emerges from the fact that the two persons longing as all individuals do to overcome the separateness and isolation to which we are all heir because we are individuals can participate in a relationship that for the moment is not of two isolated selves but a union.
Rollo May
It seems safe to say that significant discovery really creative thinking does not occur with regard to problems about which the thinker is lukewarm.
Mary Henle
Do not mistake a child for his symptom.
Erik Erikson
Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.
Erik Erikson
The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am then I can change.
Carl Rogers
There is nobody who totally lacks the courage to change.
Rollo May
Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.
John Dewey
The solid wealth of insurance companies and the success of those who organize gambling are some indication of the profits to be derived from the efficient use of chance.
Edward de Bono
Man is the only animal that can be bored.
Erich Fromm
Man lives by habits indeed but what he lives for is thrill and excitements. ... From time immemorial war has been ... the supremely thrilling excitement.
William James
One of the worst forms of mental suffering is boredom not knowing what to do with oneself and one's life. Even if man had no monetary or any other reward he would be eager to spend his energy in some meaningful way because he could not stand the boredom which inactivity produces.
Erich Fromm
The art of love ... is largely the art of persistence.
Albert Ellis
A man must not swallow more beliefs than he can digest.
Havelock Ellis
Dancing is the loftiest the most moving the most beautiful of the arts because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life it is life itself.
Havelock Ellis
Anxiety is essential to the human condition. The confrontation with anxiety can relieve us from boredom sharpen the sensitivity and assure the presence of tension that is necessary to preserve human existence.
Rollo May
Fear of life in one form or another is the great thing to exorcise.
William James
Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.
Erik H. Erikson
We fear our highest possibility (as well as our lowest one). We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments.
Abraham Maslow
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
William James
We only think when we are confronted with a problem.
John Dewey
Men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they possess and which they might use under appropriate circumstances.
William James
Be willing to have it so acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
William James
I began to have an idea of my life not as the slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purposes but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know.
Joanna Field
A guru might say that spiritual deepening involves a journey toward the unselfconscious living of life as it unfolds rather than toward a willful determination to make it happen.
John Fortunato
Accept that all of us can be hurt that all of us can-and surely will at times-fail. Other vulnerabilities like being embarrassed or risking love can be terrifying too. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst take the risk.
Dr. Joyce Brothers
We must learn to accept life and to accept ourselves ... with a shrug and a smile ... because it's all we've got.
Harvey Mindess
Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequence of any misfortune.
William James
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.
Dr. Edward De Bono
Free man is by necessity insecure thinking man by necessity uncertain.
Erich Fromm
Always seek to allow others space to be imperfect.
Alan Downs
What is most personal is most universal.
Carl R. Rogers
Of all mankind's unpleasant habits, sheer and willful cruelty is the most base, the least forgivable and, when carried to its extreme, perhaps the most horrific.
Christopher Riche Evans
The bonsai grower knows that if she can give life to a product that lives forever and perpetually adds value to the lives of others, she has not only a success but a legacy.
Steven Berglas
I have frequently thought to myself, 'If I can teach my daughter one thing, it will be the love of self unconditionally.' Unconditional love and peace are obtainable, but they are only obtainable if I can learn to move beyond the conditions that I placed on my life. When conditions are placed on my life and on the lives of others, they ensure that I will never experience the depths of love and happiness.
Asa Don Brown
I continue to be surprised by judgmental native stereotypes and apathy, but if I wasn't that would mean I'd become accustomed and tolerant. I don't want to stop being surprised. I just want them to stop.
Red Haircrow
23. With God, even when nothing is happening...something is happening.
James C. Dobson
Failure isn't the end of the world, nor is it a sign that you won't be capable of going on to do other things.
Dr. Kevin Leman
Do anything that you want to do other than what you are required to do...success will surely go to others.
Amit Abraham