Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes

Human beings have a right to change their consciousness, and it is unconscionable and absolutely wrong for any government or any person to stand in the way of someone choosing to change their consciousness.

Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence.

The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings.

You ain't got but one life. You ought to live it the way you want.

Each of us possesses a tangible living soul. The system has no such thing. We must not allow the system to exploit us.

Our whole evolution has reached a stage where nearly every man is either ruler or ruled; sometimes he is both. By this the attitude of dependence has been greatly strengthened, for a truly free man does not like to play the part of either the ruler or the ruled. He is, above all, concerned with making his inner values and personal powers effective in a way as to permit him to use his own judgment in all affairs and to be independent in action.

Man is a unique individual. He can never be put in a system where he becomes just another notch. Another nail.

Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest. (Let no man belong to another that can belong to himself.)

I live as I choose or I will not live at all.

Let's let people live their lives and do it the way they want to do it.

It's about whatever I want to make it about. It's my world.

Let no one who can be his own belong to another.

Life is for my own to live my own way.

You have to just do your thing. As long as you don't hurt anybody along the way.

Without private thoughts and actions, we can never truly be free.

A human being is a deciding being.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

Your mind is the channel of it all. It feeds your soul, your heart, everything. It comes from your thoughts. The kind of person you are comes from the way you think. And it bleeds into the way you feel. And such forth. If the mind is not free, then we won't be free.

I can't always live my life for everybody else.

We human beings are strange creatures and still reserve the right to think for ourselves.

Obedience is detachment from the self. This is the most radical detachment of all. But what is the self? The self is the principle of reason and responsibility in us. It is the root of freedom, it is what makes us men.

A character is a completely fashioned will.

Freedom begins as we become conscious of it.

I never let track define me. That's something that's really important to me.

In America, it is difficult to be your own man.