Ellen Langer Quotes

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Knowing what is and knowing what can be are not the same thing.

Ellen Langer

What we have learned to look for in a situation determines mostly what we see.

Ellen Langer

Not only do we as individuals get locked into single-minded views, but we also reinforce these views for each other until the culture itself suffers the same mindlessness.

Ellen Langer

My ideas sometimes get the better of me. Before I clearly explain one, another comes to mind and seizes my attention....

Ellen Langer

There is always a step small enough from where we are to get us to where we want to be. If we take that small step, there's always another we can take, and eventually a goal thought to be too far to reach becomes achievable.

Ellen Langer

In the perspective of every person lies a lens through which we may better understand ourselves.

Ellen Langer

Out of an intuitive experience of the world comes a continuous flow of novel distinctions. Purely rational understanding, on the other hand, serves to confirm old mindsets, rigid categories. Artists, who live in the same world as the rest of us, steer clear of these mindsets to make us see things anew.

Ellen Langer

Certainty is a cruel mindset. It hardens our minds against possibility.

Ellen Langer

We should open ourselves to the impossible and embrace a psychology of possibility.

Ellen Langer

Ellen Langer

Ellen Langer

Creative Commons

Born: March 25, 1947 (age 77)

Bio: Ellen Jane Langer is a professor of psychology at Harvard University, having in 1981 become the first woman ever to be tenured in psychology at Harvard. Langer studies the illusion of control, decision-making, aging, and mindfulness theory.

Known for:

Ellen Langer on Wikipedia

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