Anthony Storr Quotes

16 Sourced Quotes

The professional must learn to be moved and touched emotionally, yet at the same time stand back objectively: I've seen a lot of damage done by tea and sympathy.

Anthony Storr
If we did not look to marriage as the principal source of happiness, fewer marriages would end in tears.

Anthony Storr
It is only when we no longer compulsively need someone that we can have a real relationship with them.

Anthony Storr
Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms.

Anthony Storr
The human spirit is not indestructible; but a courageous few discover that, when in hell, they are granted a glimpse of heaven.

Anthony Storr
Whether a belief is considered to be a delusion or not depends partly upon the intensity with which it is defended, and partly upon the numbers of people subscribing to it.

Anthony Storr
It is true that many creative people fail to make mature personal relationships, and some are extremely isolated. It is also true that, in some instances, trauma, in the shape of early separation or bereavement, has steered the potentially creative person toward developing aspects of his personality which can find fulfillment in comparative isolation. But this does not mean that solitary, creative pursuits are themselves pathological.

Anthony Storr
In a culture in which interpersonal relationships are generally considered to provide the answer to every form of distress, it is sometimes difficult to persuade well-meaning helpers that solitude can be as therapeutic as emotional support.

Anthony Storr
Self-realization is not an anti-social principle; it is firmly based on the fact that men need each other in order to be themselves.

Anthony Storr
All the world loves a lover, and a lover loves all the world.

Anthony Storr
The creative person is constantly seeking to discover himself, to remodel his own identity, and to find meaning in what he creates.

Anthony Storr
The word "jealousy" is often used as if it were synonymous with envy; but I think the distinction worth preserving. Jealousy is predominantly concerned with the fear of loss of something one possesses, envy with the wish to own something another possesses. Othello suffers from the fear that he has lost Desdemona's love. Iago suffers from envy of the position held by Cassio, to which he feels entitled.

Anthony Storr
It is widely believed that interpersonal relationships of an intimate kind are the chief, if not the only, source of human happiness, yet the lives of creative individuals often seem to run counter to this assumption.

Anthony Storr
A happy marriage perhaps represents the ideal of human relationship -- a setting in which each partner, while acknowledging the need of the other, feels free to be what he or she by nature is: a relationship in which instinct as well as intellect can find expression; in which giving and taking are equal; in which each accepts the other, and I confronts Thou.

Anthony Storr
So-called "inspiration" is no more than an extreme example of a process which constantly goes on in the minds of all of us.

Anthony Storr
Idiosyncratic belief systems which are shared by only a few adherents are likely to be regarded as delusional. Belief systems which may be just as irrational but which are shared by millions are called world religions.

Anthony Storr