Lewis H. Lapham Quotes

Life is the most versatile thing under the sun; and in the pursuit of life and character the author who works in a groove works in blinkers.

I'm more interested in life than life-style. Life-style means you have to drive a certain car.

He who integrates is lost.

I think when you start changing things, you're not being yourself.

Many people dedicate their lives to actualizing a concept of what they should be like, rather than actualizing themselves. This difference between self-actualization and self-image actualization is very important. Most people live only for their image

I believe so many people live what I call that false identity they are living according to other people's expectations, associations, their experiences, the labels in life. And they buy into that.

Better than other people.' Sometimes he says: 'That, at least, you are.' But more often: 'Why should you be? Either you are what you can be, or you are not - like other people.

Is there something in trade that desiccates and flattens out, that turns men into dried leaves at the age of forty? Certainly there is. It is not due to trade but to intensity of self-seeking, combined with narrowness of occupation. Business has destroyed the very knowledge in us of all other natural forces except business.

Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realization. The ideal must not be lowered because of our weaknesses or imperfections.

I think my days of trying outrageous things are over. I'm not looking for trends, I just want to be the best version of myself.

I... keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be if... if only there were no other people in the world.

I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.

If I become the man you want, I wouldn't be the man I am.

Even with limited intelligence, knowing oneself is not as difficult as some say, but to act according to what one has realized about oneself in real life is as difficult as practicing anything else, compared to theory.

Whoever undertakes to create soon finds himself engaged in creating himself. Self-transformation and the transformation of others have constituted the radical interest of our century, whether in painting, psychiatry, or political action.

We are living in a world where the individual must learn to command the raw materials of expression. He must not be dependent all the time on the ready-made, the finished product. It's the transferring, the changing of the raw into what is the expression of your own self – the whole joy and satisfaction and frustration of life is built into this.

I find myself both as man and as myself something more determined and distinctive, at pitch, more distinctive and higher pitched than anything else I see.

Always aspire to become the next you, not someone else

The act of loving is an act of self-evolution even when the purpose of the act is someone else's growth.

Many people feel they are powerless to do anything effective with their lives. It takes courage to break out of the settled mold, but most find conformity more comfortable. This is why the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity.

Anybody who says that love is a hindrance on the path of self-realization is not a sage.

The greatest fear people have is that of being themselves.

If we're really committed to growth, we never stop discovering new dimensions of self and self-expression .

How much easier is self-sacrifice than self-realization!