“We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments.”
“To be neurotic is to be in a quandary.”
“All basic or innate capacities are biologically grounded and hence are biological or species properties.”
“The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important.”
“The ability to be spontaneous is an important component of psychological health.”
“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.”
“If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.”
“We may define therapy as a search for value.”
“If you only listen to your needs, you will not grow.”
“What counts is not what facts you know, but how well you can find out.”
“Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.”
“The fact that we are not at this moment emphasizing ‘self-actualizing’ concerns is due, I think, to an overemphasis on pathology.”
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
“Be independent of the good opinion of other people.”
“Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.”
“The existence of value absolutes is denied; at most, it is said, we have a human inclination to develop preferences.”
“What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.”
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.”
“We are dealing here with the best developed, the most efficiently functioning individuals.”
“What is life for? It is for you.”
“To be normal is the ideal aim of the unsuccessful.”
“What we call ‘normal’ in psychology is really a psychopathology of the average, so undramatic and so widely spread that we don’t even notice it ordinarily.”
“The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth.”
“The fully developed person…works because it’s natural, because it’s right and enjoyable and because it’s necessary.”
“A person who makes full use and exploitation of his talents, capacities, potentialities, etc., is a self-actualizing person.”
“The human being seems to have two diversely differentiated types of trends, or a dual motivation.”
“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy.”
“The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.”
“Love is often the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”
“The most stable, most balanced people are those who are most interested in what they see in themselves, not in what they think they ought to be.”
“When we can’t stand it any longer, we discover that the thing we have been waiting for, and must do, is to throw ourselves more completely into the arms of existence.”
“The creative person seems to have two personalities, one of which is childlike.”
“Self-actualization is not a process of learning or perfecting skills.”
“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.”
READ MORE AUTHORS QUOTES:
“The fact is that people are good, if only their fundamental wishes are satisfied, their wishes for affection and security, for belonging, for respect and self-respect.”
Abraham Maslow quotes :
“In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.”
“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
“When it is a question of the child’s formation, the views of the parents about him are never neutral.”
“If you love the truth, you’ll trust it; if you trust it, you’ll want to live it.”
“The ability to be alone is an important component of psychological health.”
“The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.”
“Human life will never be understood unless its highest aspirations are taken into account. Growth, self-actualization, the striving toward health, the quest for identity and autonomy, the yearning for excellence (and other ways of phrasing the striving ‘upward’) must by now be accepted beyond question as a widespread and perhaps universal human tendency.”
“The sacred is in the ordinary, it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s backyard.”
“The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.”
“If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life.”
“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”
“The key question isn’t ‘What fosters creativity?’ But it is why in God’s name isn’t everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate?”
“Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves.”
“The ability to be self-critical is an important component of psychological health.”
“The positive effect on the self-image of our therapy is remarkable.”
“It isn’t normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.”
“It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.”
“What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization.”
“Self-actualizing people have a deep feeling of identification, sympathy, and affection for human beings in general.”
“The fact is that people are good. Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.”
“Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth): Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.”
“Discontent is the yeast that raises the dough.”
“What a man can be, he must be.”
“Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth).”
“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.”
“The need for creative expression is an important component of psychological health.”
“A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.”
“The child is father to the man.”
“If you only have a religion, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
“Self-actualization is not a thing to be attained, it is a way of life.”
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”