Psychology Quotes

We are reassured almost as foolishly as we are alarmed; human nature is so constituted.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

Once a need is satisfied, it is no longer a motivator. Satisfaction does not increase motivation

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active. That is why it is necessary to happiness that one should be tired.

One who is publicly honest about himself ends up by priding himself somewhat on this honesty: for he knows only too well why he is honest-for the same reasons another person prefers illusion and dissimulation.

When you have empathy toward your opponents, it helps you destroy them quicker. Because you understand exactly who they are. You understand what buttons to push. You understand if they're insecure, if they fear embarrassment. And you can really hit those buttons to strike a nerve.

Surrounded by the flames of jealousy, the jealous one winds up, like the scorpion, turning the poisoned sting against himself.

The term trying to forget someone is so awful because you’ll never forget someone if you’re trying to forget them.

A man's interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself.

When a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dangerous thing for himself; but when he laughs inwardly, it bodes no good to other people.

Psychology is the description of the reflection of the terrestial world in the heavenly plane, or, more correctly, the description of a reflection such as we, soaked as we are in our terrestial nature, imagine it, for no reflection actually occurs, only we see earth wherever we turn.

Men are lead by trifles.

Neurosis is the natural by-product of pain avoidance.

Man is more sensitive to the contempt of others than to self-contempt.

Those with certain temperaments find no way to endure themselves except by striving towards going under.

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

The simplest and most psychologically satisfying explanation of any observed phenomenon is that it happened that way because someone wanted it to happen that way.

a man does not cry because he is sad, he is sad because he cries

Ultimately one loves one's desires and not that which is desired.

The most powerful force in the human psyche is people's need for their words and actions to stay consistent with their IDENTITY - how we define ourselves.

The worst thing that can happen to a good teacher is to get a bad conscience about her profession because she feels herself hopeless as a psychologist.

Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.

Thank God I'm not a Jungian.

Emotional makeup is more important than technical skill

People are not their behaviors.

The collective unconscious consists of the sum of the instincts and their correlates, the archetypes. Just as everybody possesses instincts, so he also possesses a stock of archetypal images.

A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.

Mutual fear is a principal link in the chain of mutual love.

It being a remarkable fact in theatrical history, but one long since established beyond dispute, that it is a hopeless endeavor to attract people to a theatre unless they can be first brought to believe that they will never get in.

The only way to create change in anyone`s psychology or belief system is to show them the consequences of their actions - or inaction.

We are mere bundles of habits.

It is weakness which breeds fear, and fear breeds distrust.

old emotions like old families have intermarried and have many connections.

Even a lie is a psychic fact.

One loves ultimately one's desires, not the thing desired.

Phlegmatic natures can be inspired to enthusiasm only by being made into fanatics.

When we cannot stand certain people, we try to have suspicions about them.

When a man does exactly what a woman expects him to do she doesn't think much of him. One should always do what a woman doesn't expect, just as one should say what she doesn't understand.

A man unconsciously imagines that where he is strong, where he feels most thoroughly alive, the element of his freedom must lie.

It is curious how vanity helps the successful man and wrecks the failure.

Forever I shall be a stranger to myself. In psychology as in logic, there are truths but no truth.

The more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble because we are sorry, angry, or fearful as the case may be.

Doing ill to those on whom we have to make our power felt; for pain is a far more sensitive means for that purpose than pleasure: pain always asks concerning the cause, while pleasure is inclined to keep within itself and not look backward.

What do we need all that for?”If a picture is psychologically motivated, if there is truth in the relationship in it, then I think that picture will do good. I firmly believe Rebel Without A Cause is such a picture.

Deeply listening to music opens up new avenues of research I'd never even dreamed of. I feel from now on music should be an essential part of every analysis.

Hitler is a shy and friendly man with artistic tastes and gifts.

Positive images of the future are a powerful and magnetic force... They draw us on and energize us, give us courage and will to take on important initiatives. Negative images of the future also have a magnetism. They pull the spirit downward in the path of despair.

To know psychology, therefore, is absolutely no guarantee that we shall be good teacher.

We are terrified by the idea of being terrified.

Expectations send unconscious signals that people respond to.

The so called unconscious inferences can be traced back to the all-preserving memory, which presents us with parallel experiences and hence already knows the consequences of an action. It is not anticipation of the effects; rather, it is the feeling: identical causes, identical effects . . .

Most women are introspective: "Am I in love? Am I emotionally and creatively fulfilled?" Most men are outrospective: "Did my team win? How's my car?"

It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

Archetypes resemble the beds of rivers: dried up because the water has deserted them, though it may return at any time. An archetype is something like an old watercourse along which the water of life flowed for a time, digging a deep channel for itself. The longer it flowed the deeper the channel, and the more likely it is that sooner or later the water will return.

Happiness: being able to forget or, to express in a more learned fashion.

How far do our feelings take their colour from the dive underground? I mean, what is the reality of any feeling?

How much rationality and higher protection there is in such self-deception, and how much falseness I still require in order to allow myself again and again the luxury of my sincerity.

Creativity is the art that can give rise to visionary metaphorical relationships, as opposed to purely psy-chological ones.

When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion, action will.