M. Scott Peck - People Quotes

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Wise people learn not to dread but actually to welcome problems and actually to welcome the pain of problems.

M. Scott Peck
An unconscious, gentle process whereby people who want to be loving attempt to be so by telling little white lies, by withholding some of the truth about themselves and their feelings in order to avoid conflict. Pseudocommunity is conflict-avoiding; true community is conflict-resolving.

M. Scott Peck
Love is the free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they are quite capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other.

M. Scott Peck
Evil people hate the light because it reveals themselves to themselves. They hate goodness because it revels their badness. They will destroy the light, the goodness, the love in order to avoid the pain of self-awareness.

M. Scott Peck
Listening well is an exercise of attention and by necessity hard work. It is because they do not realize this or because they are not willing to do the work that most people do not listen well.

M. Scott Peck
Idealists are people who believe in the potential of human nature for transformation.... The most essential attribute of human nature is its mutability and freedom from instinct... it is always within our power to change our nature. So it is actually the idealists who are on the mark and the realists who are off base.

M. Scott Peck
I have learned nothing in twenty years that would suggest that evil people can be rapidly influenced by any means other than raw power. They do not respond, at least in the short run, to either gentle kindness or any form of spiritual persuasion with which I am familiar.

M. Scott Peck
Spiritually evolved people, by virtue of their discipline, mastery and love, are people of extraordinary competence, and in their competence they are called on to serve the world, and in their love they answer the call.

M. Scott Peck
Since the primary motive of the evil is disguise, one of the places evil people are most likely to be found is within the church. What better way to conceal one's evil from oneself as well as from others than to be a deacon or some other highly visible form of Christian within our culture

M. Scott Peck
The will to grow is, in essence, the same phenomenon as love. Genuinely loving people are, by definition, growing people.

M. Scott Peck
What people get admired and appreciated for in community are their soft skills: their sense of humor and timing, their ability to listen, their courage and honesty, their capacity for empathy.

M. Scott Peck