29 Psychology-Related Quotes
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The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.
Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person (1961)
The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person (1961)
Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.
Sigmund Freud, Attributed
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
Carl Jung, The Red Book (2009)
If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.
Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (1968)
Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (1946)
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
Carl Jung, Psychological Reflections (1973)
What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
Plutarch, Moral Essays: How the Young Man Should Study Poetry (1st century AD)
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (1930)
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.
William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890)
Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.
Sigmund Freud, Collected Works
I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.
Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962)
Becoming is better than being.
Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006)
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890)
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.
Plato, The Republic (380 BC)
The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.
Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962)
He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (6th century BC)
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband (1895)
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Rumi, The Essential Rumi (13th century)
Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.
Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)
What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.
Buddha, Interpreted from various Buddhist teachings
The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.
Paul Valéry, Regards sur le monde actuel (1931)
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
Alan Watts, Secular Buddhism
You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago.
Alan Watts, Wisdom Quotes
Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.
Alan Watts, Secular Buddhism
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
Alan Watts, Wisdom Quotes
Why don’t you really know what you want? Two reasons: 1. You have it. 2. You don’t know yourself, because you never can... Just as a knife doesn’t cut itself, fire doesn’t burn itself, light doesn’t illumine itself. You're always an endless mystery to yourself.
Alan Watts, The Universe Looking at Itself
Why don’t you really know what you want? Two reasons: 1. You have it. 2. You don’t know yourself, because you never can... Just as a knife doesn’t cut itself, fire doesn’t burn itself, light doesn’t illumine itself. You're always an endless mystery to yourself.
- Alan Watts, The Universe Looking at Itself
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