Psychologist Quotes

When a couple gets to the last stage, one or both partners may have an affair. But an affair is usually a symptom of a dying marriage, not the cause. The end of that marriage could have been predicted long before either spouse strayed.

Ambivalence: a collision between thought and feeling.

Kids want nothing more than for all the important adults in their life to get along.

For some of the large indignities of life, the best remedy is direct action. For the small indignities, the best remedy is a Charlie Chaplin movie. The hard part is knowing the difference.

When we come to the end of our days, the little things will seem so unimportant compared to how well we've loved, laughed and treasured our lives and loved ones.

The small share of happiness attainable by man exists only insofar as he is able to cease to think of himself.

To be a virtuous person is to display, by acts of will, all or at least most of the six ubiquitous virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.

Martin Seligman

The agentive mind is not only active in nature, but it seeks out dialogue and discourse with other active minds. And it is through this dialogic, discursive process that we come to know the Other and his points of view, his stories. We learn an enormous amount not only about the world but about ourselves by discourse with Others.

The mistakes we make when we try to imagine our personal futures are also lawful, regular, and systematic. They, too, have a pattern that tells us about the powers and limits of foresight in much the same way that optical illusions tell us about the powers and limits of eyesight.

Daniel Gilbert (psychologist)

Once you become aware of what means the most to you, you're less likely to put off something that's really valuable for something that matters much less... it's knowing the difference between what's important and what isn't that allows us to solve problems effectively.

When we are in fear, there is no room for love, and when we are in love, there is no room for fear.

The man of learning without imagination has feet but no wings.

Hugo Münsterberg

Only when he voluntarily chooses that which he inexorably must do, has man any free will at all.

Mary Esther Harding

It is in the middle of misery that so much becomes clear. The one who says nothing good comes of this is not yet listening.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

I thought of the analyst Winnicott's observation: 'It is a joy to be hidden but disaster not to be found'.

Sometimes you have to give up an intense heat for a continuing warmth.

A great many people fall in love with or feel attracted to a person who offers the least possibility of a harmonious union.

Rudolf Dreikurs

Yoga is an exquisite form of bodywork that eliminates the residue that has become lodged in the tissue.

Richard Miller (psychologist)

Chance is commonly viewed as a self-correcting process in which a deviation in one direction induces a deviation in the opposite direction to restore the equilibrium. In fact, deviations are not "corrected" as a chance process unfolds, they are merely diluted.

When we study the structure of the atom, we shall arrive at the conclusion that it is an immense reservoir of energy solely constituted by a system of imponderable elements maintained in equilibrium by the rotations, attractions and repulsions of its component parts.

My premise is that parents basically do a very good job. [There are just] rough spots to frustrate us.

Lawrence Kutner (psychologist)

What would our lives be like if we took earthworms seriously, took the ground under our feet rather than the skies high above our heads, as the place to look, as well, eventually, as the place to be? It is as though we have been pointed in the wrong direction.

Adam Phillips (psychologist)

The surest guide to the meaning of a dream is the feeling and judgment of the dreamer himself, who deep down inside knows its meaning.

We become powerful in the face of our fears when we have a sense that we make a difference in this world. We are all meaningful participants in this Universe and worthy of giving and receiving love. Some affirmations of purpose are: I know that I count and I act as though I do. I spread warmth and love everywhere I go. I am a healing force in the Universe.

Loving a baby or child is a circular business, a kind of feedback loop. The more you give, the more you get, the more you get, the more you feel like giving.