Top 1169 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Psychologists - Page 2

Because we are afraid of life, we seek to control or master it.

If you continually diet, you are putting your body in a quasi-famine situation. It slows your metabolism down and breaks the thermostat. Diets don't work. They don't help you understand why you're eating more than your body wanted in the first place.

But I spent just two calendar years at Cornell University, though it was covering more than three years of work, and then went to medical school and did become interested in psychiatry, and even helped form a kind of psychiatry club in medical school.

Poetry begins as the divine speech of the bicameral mind. Then, as the bicameral mind breaks down, there remain prophets.

Don't become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin.

Overachievement is aimed at people who want to maximize their potential. And to do that, I insist you throw caution to the wind, ignore the pleas of parents, coaches, spouses, and bosses to be "realistic." Realistic people do not accomplish extraordinary things because the odds against success stymie them. The best performers ignore the odds. I will show you that instead of limiting themselves to what's probable, the best will pursue the heart-pounding, exciting, really big, difference-making dreams-so long as catching them might be possible.

Education must, be not only a transmission of culture but also a provider of alternative views of the world and a strengthener of the will to explore them.

In other words, the man who is born into existence deals first with language; this is a given. He is even caught in it before his birth.

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.

The distinguishing characteristics of mind are of a subjective sort; we know them only from the contents of our own consciousness.

The perfect normal person is rare in our civilization.

Hope never abandons you, you abandon it.

Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.

Dream research is a wonderful field. All you do is sleep for a living.

A man will treat a woman almost exactly the way he treats his own interior feminine. In fact, he hasn't the ability to see a woman, objectively speaking, until he has made some kind of peace with his interior woman.

Psychology is the science of the intellects, characters and behavior of animals including man.

In order to stretch ourselves we do need to experience the vulnerability of not knowing the outcome.

The main point for me is that toys are incredibly more important than we realized.

Friendships in childhood are usually a matter of chance, whereas in adolescence they are most often a matter of choice.

Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now born.

I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time.

What a child can do today with assistance, she will be able to do by herself tomorrow.

Just trying to do something - just being there, showing up - is how we get braver. Self-esteem is about doing.

One of the most wicked destructive forces, psychologically speaking, is unused creative power ... If someone has a creative gift and out of laziness, or for some other reason, doesn't use it, the psychic energy turns to sheer poison. That's why we often diagnose neuroses and psychotic diseases as not-lived higher possibilities.

History is written by the victors, but it's victims who write the memoirs.

To gain knowledge, we must learn to ask the right questions; and to get answers, we must act, not wait for answers to occur to us.

The good life is built with good relationships.

The belief that one's own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous of all delusions.

No matter how thoroughly a person may have learned the Greek alphabet, he will never be in a condition to repeat it backwards without further training.

Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.

Intuition is when we use our experience, and the patterns we have learned, to rapidly size up situations and know how to respond without going through deliberate analysis. Intuitions depend on the patterns we have acquired. Insight is about gaining new patterns.

Courage and conviction are powerful weapons against an enemy who depends only on fists or guns. Animals know when you are afraid; a coward knows when you are not.

Kindness, as we will see, has many facets. But its essence is as simple as can be. We will find that kindness is a way of making _less_ effort. It is the most economic attitude there is, because it saves us much energy that we might otherwise waste in suspicion, worry, resentment, manipulation, or unnecessary defense. It is an attitude that, by eliminating the inessential, brings us back to the simplicity of being.

The only way we can ever teach a child to say "I'm sorry" is for him to hear it from our lips first.

The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.

Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.

Startling, and alarming to many, is the conclusion that follows from these data that if all people were treated the same, most average race differences would not disappear.

The masses have never thirsted after truth. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.

Love is an attempt to change a piece of a dream world into reality.

In the different voice of women lies the truth of an ethic of care, the tie between relationship and responsibility, and the origins of aggression in the failure of connection.

All of us are much more human than otherwise.

To my knowledge, there have been no studies done on the effects of antidepressants and altitude. But it is hugely important to find out if there are side effects. We should also find out what are the effects on fine motor skills and reaction time. These are all important questions that should be assessed.

Suggestibility varies as the amount of disaggregation, and inversely as the unification of consciousness.

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

Sometimes I find that in my happy moments I could not believe that I had ever been miserable.

A loser doesn't know what he'll do if he loses, but talks about what he'll do if he wins, and a winner doesn't talk about what he'll do if he wins, but knows what he'll do if he loses.

In order to develop normally, a child requires progressively more complex joint activity with one or more adults who have an irrational emotional relationship with the child. Somebody's got to be crazy about that kid. That's number one. First, last and always.

People who are aware of, and ashamed of, their prejudices are well on the road to eliminating them.

Self-love, it is obvious, remains always positive and active in our natures.

In the 21st century, I think the heroes will be the people who will improve the quality of life, fight poverty and introduce more sustainability.

Chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort.

Critical words to a child are as painful and damaging as being physically hit. They are verbal slaps in the face. Usually, critical words are accompanied by threats, name-calling, and yelling. This verbal abuse can be especially damaging. Insulting names echo in a child's mind over and over again until he comes to believe he is indeed stupid, selfish, lazy, or ugly and that in fact, that is all he is.

Language and words for psychopaths are only word deep; there is no emotional colouring behind it. A psychopath can use a word like, 'I love you' but it means nothing more to him than if he said, 'I'll have a cup of coffee.'

It is our responsibility to learn to become emotionally intelligent. These are skills, they’re not easy, nature didn’t give them to us - we have to learn them.

Sometimes we forget to be grateful until we survive a trauma. For example, after having the flu when you ache all over, throw up for hours, and have little people pounding in your head with hammers, it is sheer bliss just to eat a piece of toast, walk outside without getting dizzy, and breathe fresh air. Part of the journey toward joy involves not waiting around for trouble, but being continuously aware of our blessings.

Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.

For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does just for fun and things that are educational. The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play.

All children are born with stars in their eyes, and they are curious. It is important for teachers to be careful not to kill this curiosity. A lot can go wrong. Children can be teased, even by teachers.

If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.

We cannot protect our children from life. Therefore, it is essential that we prepare them for it.