Psychological Growth Quotes

In so doing, the idea forces itself upon him that religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis, and he is optimistic enough to suppose that mankind will surmount this neurotic phase, just as so many children grow out of their similar neurosis.

We may talk a good game and write even better ones, but we never outgrow those small wounded things we were when we were five and six and seven.

The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is in arriving at maturity. A man reaches the maturity of his reasoning powers and mental faculties hardly before the age of twenty-eight; a woman at eighteen.

Once you see a child's selfimage begin to improve, you will see significant gains in achievement areas, but even more important, you will see a child who is beginning to enjoy life more.

We're all flawed human beings and we all have a cauldron of psychosis which we have to unravel as we grow older and find the way we fit in to live our lives as best as possible.

Self-development is the only thing that keeps a person from burning out. We all have many needs - the need for certainty, the need for variety, the need for significance, and the need for connection. But, ultimately, we must grow, and we must contribute in a meaningful way in order to feel fulfilled.

I think a lot of people want to blame their fathers for not being good enough when they were growing up. I think it can be an excuse for not coming to terms with your own problems.

Your trade becomes very much impacted by the quality of your life experiences and your capacity to process them.

The harrowing of the soul can be like the harrowing of the soil; to increase the yield, things are turned upside down.

There are neither winners nor losers; there are only stages that must be gone through. When the human heart understands this, it is free and able to accept difficult times without being deceived by moments of glory

Everybody thinks you reach a certain age and you're a grownup, but it's not true. Nobody grows up until the day they croak.

Suffering lets us see where are attachments are - and that helps us get free.

Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live.

When I was writing my dissertation, I wrote about Freud and the process of sublimation, which is when you learn to stop breast-feeding, or stop going to the toilet whenever you want to. It's about learning to repress a desire for instant gratification.

Anxiety is an even better teacher than reality, for one can temporarily evade reality by avoiding the distasteful situation; but anxiety is a source of education always present because one carries it within.

Man's maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play.

Is it possible, I wonder, for a man to truly change? Or do character and habit form the immovable boundaries of our lives?

Psychotherapy is a cyclical process from isolation into relationship. It is cyclical because the patient, in terror of existential isolation, relates deeply and meaningfully to the therapist and then, strengthened by this encounter, is led back again to a confrontation with existential isolation.

When you're physically growing up, you develop emotionally with that.

Contrary to what we may have been taught to think, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us but need not scar us for life. It does mark us. What we allow the mark of our suffering to become is in our own hands.

At first, when a child meets something that scares him, the fear grows, like a wave. But when he goes into the water and swims - gets used to the water - the wave grows small. If we pull the child away when the wave is high, he never sees that, never learns how to swim and remains afraid. If he gets a chance to feel strong, in control, that's called coping. When he copes, he feels better.

In terms of soul work, we dare not get rid of the pain before we have learned what it has to teach us.

Shedding off one more layer of skin, Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within.

Maturity is a compound of wisdom, goodwill, resilience, and creativity.

Some degree of expression is necessary for growth, but it should be little in proportion to the full life.