The best sayings on psychology. Sayings of great psychologists

Don't imagine that your case is unusually difficult. Even those who eventually became the most eloquent representatives of their generation suffered from such unconscious fear and shyness at the beginning of their careers.
Dale Carnegie

If a child experiencing irritation could not change the situation and could not cry tears of futility, could not go through the path from anger to grief, then the energy of frustration goes further, to the last mechanism of defense against aggression.
Gordon Neufeld

The question of the mission of psychotherapy is, first of all, a question of its comprehension of itself and its purpose.
Victor Kagan

Most great friend and man's greatest enemy is his imagination.
Arturo Graf

Here we collect not only aphorisms from little-known psychologists, but also quotes from great psychologists.

A person “by nature” is not inclined to earn money, more and more more money, he just wants to live, live the way he is used to, and earn as much as is necessary for such a life.
Maximilian Carl Julius Weber (Max Weber)

A person has a strong temperament, capable not only of feeling strongly, but also of maintaining balance under the most severe trials and capable, despite the storm in the chest, of obeying the subtlest instructions of the mind, like a compass needle on a ship agitated by a storm.
Carl von Clausewitz

Remember that unfair criticism is often a compliment in disguise. Remember that no one ever hits a dead dog.
Dale Carnegie

After a period of happiness, joyful excitement and a feeling of fullness of life, the perception of what has been achieved will inevitably come for granted and anxiety, dissatisfaction and a desire for more will arise!
Abraham Maslow

It is very easy to destroy or suppress a person’s potential so much that a full-fledged personality seems to us like something like a miracle, such an improbable case that it leaves us in awe. But at the same time, it is encouraging that self-actualizing people nevertheless exist, and therefore, you can cope with all the challenges and emerge victorious.
Abraham Maslow

Life is a process of constant choice. At every moment a person has a choice: either retreat or advance towards the goal. Either a movement towards even greater fear, fears, protection, or a choice of goal and growth of spiritual strength. Choosing development over fear ten times a day means moving toward self-realization ten times.
Abraham Maslow

Anyone who has only a hammer as a tool tends to look at any problem as if it were a nail.
Abraham Maslow

Trying to escape from anxiety is doomed to failure. Moreover, those who want to get rid of anxiety lose the invaluable opportunity to realize themselves and are not able to learn to be human.
Rollo May

Since the pigs learned about Freud, they explain all piggishness as a complex.
Don Aminado

Everything that irritates others can lead to understanding oneself.
Carl Gustav Jung

... a neurotic can be characterized as a person who has not given up in the struggle for his own personality.
Eric Fromm

Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem: he must solve it and cannot escape it anywhere. He cannot return to the pre-human state of harmony with nature and must develop his mind until he becomes master of nature and himself.
Eric Fromm

In what cases should you contact a psychologist, and in what cases should you contact a psychiatrist?

This was a collection containing quotes from psychologists.

Quotes from psychologists about human existence are quite entertaining. At all times, man has strived to find the meaning of life. Many people dedicated for many years in order to understand the true purpose of his stay on earth. To solve this difficult task, numerous asceticisms were carried out and various tests were arranged.

This is because man by nature is a researcher; he tends to seek the truth in everything. Quotes from psychologists about meaning and essence human existence makes you think about a lot. For those people who want to live their best years meaningfully, they may be useful.

“The incomparable benefit is to spend your life on something that will remain for centuries” (W. James)

It is very important to give the right direction to your existence. You can’t just waste your days, seeking momentary pleasure. With this approach, it is impossible to achieve anything significant. Feel greatest value Our life is possible only when we make significant efforts to do something useful. Self-realization involves, first of all, taking responsibility. A person must think carefully about how to spend his best years, and only then can he achieve success. When we devote ourselves every day to our favorite activity, it seems meaningless and useless. Appeal to eternal values ​​radically changes the attitude towards reality.

“Changes in consciousness can change an entire life” (D. Carnegie)

The existence of every person is determined by his aspirations. Quotes from psychologists confirm the idea that we get exactly the result we strive for. Events and circumstances often develop as expected. It’s just that a person gets used to directing energy in a certain direction every day and therefore gets approximately the same result every time. Anyone who constantly complains about life, as a rule, does not develop, but stands still. The problem is that most people do not believe in themselves and do not see the opportunities that are near them. They get used to living, submitting to the monotonous stream of gray everyday life, and don’t even try to change anything.

Making meaningful changes in your thinking can really help you get rid of the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. When habitual stereotypes are destroyed, a new understanding of the essence of life will come. Quotes from great psychologists in many cases are aimed at revealing this truth.

“Love cannot be measured by suffering, because a healthy feeling is happiness” (M. Labkovsky)

Many people confuse the state of falling in love with their own fears and concerns about unfulfilled desires. Most people mistake suffering for a specific person for love. However, this understanding has nothing to do with reality. Quotes from psychologist Mikhail Labkovsky are aimed at considering the essence of love as a state. If we suffer, it means we are moving away from our true self, we cannot express own feelings. You cannot dissolve in your partner precisely because in this case there is a high risk of losing yourself. People who truly feel happy in their relationships note that they do not accept false self-sacrifice.

Understanding love as inevitable suffering takes away our internal resources in advance and makes us doubt our own capabilities. In this case, the internal forces of the personality are buried under a multitude of uncontrollable experiences. Over time, the ability to actively influence own life. It seems that events happen by themselves, without any of our participation.

“If one person replaces the whole world for another, this means that one’s own personality is lost” (M. Labkovsky)

How often do people live only by the interests and needs of their partner, forgetting about their own! Quotes from psychologist Labkovsky reflect the problem of an individual accepting responsibility to himself. Few people put in the effort to realize their individual dreams. After all, constant self-sacrifice reduces the chances of effective self-realization. Integrity is a state that is achieved through tireless work on oneself.

Thus, quotes from psychologists about personality predetermination are of the greatest value. They reveal the essence of life itself because they help you focus on what matters most.

“We do not choose each other by chance... We meet only those who already exist in our subconscious.” Sigmund Freud

“Joy comes into our lives when we have something to do; have someone to love; and there is something to hope for.” Victor Frankl

“Having a specific goal, a person feels able to overcome any problems, because his future success lives within him.” Alfred Adler

“We are what we have instilled about ourselves and what others have instilled in us about us.” Erich Fromm

“You can only truly understand what you try to change.” Kurt Lewin

“Every person has desires that he does not communicate to others, and desires that he does not even admit to himself.” Sigmund Freud

“The art of being wise is knowing what to ignore.” W. James

“By changing our thoughts, we can change our lives.” Dale Carnegie

“If a person can live not forcefully, not automatically, but spontaneously, then he realizes himself as an active creative person and understands that life has only one meaning - life itself.” E. Fromm

“The presence of anxiety indicates vitality.” Rollo May

“After a period of happiness, joyful excitement and a sense of fullness of life, there will inevitably come a perception of what has been achieved for granted and anxiety, dissatisfaction and a desire for more will arise!” Abraham Maslow

“What matters is not our fears or our anxiety, but how we relate to them.” Victor Frankl

“Loneliness is not caused by the absence of people around, but by the inability to talk with people about what seems important to you, or the unacceptability of your views to others.” Carl Gustav Jung

“If I love another person, I feel one with him, but with him as he is, and not as I would like him to be, as a means to achieve my goals.” Erich Fromm

“People sometimes say about a person, “He hasn’t found himself yet.” But they don’t find themselves, they create themselves.” Thomas Szasz

“The world is simply ideal, so there is no need to improve it, all your efforts are in vain. Leave the world alone, after all, and take care of yourself in your spare time!” Nikolai Linde

“At the heart of all our actions are two motives: the desire to become great and sexual attraction”, “Everyone normal person In fact, he is only partly normal." Sigmund Freud

“The task of making man happy was not part of the plan for the creation of the world.” Sigmund Freud

“Meeting yourself is one of the most unpleasant.” Carl Gustav Jung

“Whatever irritates others can lead to self-understanding.” Carl Gustav Jung

“When you need to make a choice, and you don’t make it, that’s also a choice.” William James

“Happiness is like a butterfly. The more you catch it, the more it escapes. But if you shift your attention to other things, happiness will come and sit quietly on your shoulder.” Victor Frankl

“Suffering’s purpose is to protect a person from apathy, from spiritual rigor.” Victor Frankl

I decided to publish a selection of aphorisms of great psychologists. Reading these laconic, wise phrases is a real pleasure.

I think other people’s thoughts very easily become your own if you perceive and process them. Conclusion: read the greats and your thinking will be elevated!

Loneliness is conditioned not by the absence of people around, but by the inability to talk with people about what seems important to you, or the unacceptability of your views for others.

Carl Gustav Jung

The problem of “being unloved” quite often turns into a problem of one’s own dislike.

Irwin Yalom

If I love another person, I feel oneness with him, but with him as he is, and not as I would like him to be, as a means to my ends.

Erich Fromm

Psychotherapists are people who have learned better than others to get along with their madness.

Carl Whitaker

Where there is Intimacy, there are no Games.

Eric Bern

People sometimes say about a person, “He hasn’t found himself yet.” But they don’t find themselves, they create them.

Thomas Szasz

Numerous problems arise when we try to meet others' expectations instead of defining our own.

Carl Rogers

By trying to be ourselves, we alienate many people, and by trying to give in to the desires of others, we alienate ourselves.

Clarissa Estes

Most of what is real within us is not realized, and most of what is realized is unreal.

Sigmund Freud

The world is simply ideal, so there is no need to improve it, all your efforts are in vain. Leave the world alone, after all, and take care of yourself in your spare time!

Nikolai Linde

Wish someone lucky to meet you and you will be lucky to meet someone.

Eric Bern

All our actions are based on two motives: the desire to become great and sexual attraction.

Sigmund Freud

Every normal person is actually only partly normal.

Sigmund Freud

Illusions attract us because they relieve pain and bring pleasure as a substitute. For this we must accept without complaint when, coming into conflict with a part of reality, illusions are shattered.

Sigmund Freud

Anyone who has only a hammer as a tool tends to look at any problem as if it were a nail.

Abraham Maslow

I very seriously object to the desire for perfection that some doctors and psychologists adhere to when working with people. I have never met a perfect human being and I do not expect to ever meet one. Perhaps it is precisely the imperfection that you are trying to take away from a person that gives him the charm that makes it possible to distinguish this individual and remember him.

Milton Erickson

No influence on a person can be more intrusive and predetermining than that which he is not aware of.

Otto Kernberg

These terrible crows - depression, despair and a feeling of uselessness - will always be somewhere nearby, right outside our window. No matter how consciously we want to get rid of them, they will come to us

come back again and again, and their hoarse croaks will interrupt our sleepy denial. Let's think of them as a constant reminder of the task before us. Even hearing their croaking, the noise of their wings, we still retain freedom of choice.

James Hollis

A person who feels loneliness experiences a unique experience of wandering and at the same time realizes his own inner essence with which he can enter into dialogue. Thanks to such dialogue, the individuation process begins.

James Hollis

We enter the world alone and we leave it alone.

Sigmund Freud

The task of making a person happy was not part of the plan for the creation of the world.

Sigmund Freud

In a certain sense, what we call happiness happens as a result of (preferably unforeseen) satisfaction long time pent up needs.

Sigmund Freud

To be truly intimate with another, we must truly listen to the other: let go of the stereotypes and expectations associated with the other, and allow ourselves to be shaped by the other's response.

Irwin Yalom

Relationships are unsuccessful when a person is partly with someone else, and partly with someone else fictitious.

Irwin Yalom

We are completely responsible for our lives, not only for our actions, but also for our inability to act.

Irwin Yalom

Love is, rather, a form of existence: not so much attraction as dedication, an attitude not so much towards one person, but towards the world as a whole.

Irwin Yalom

We are all lonely ships on a dark sea. We see the lights of other ships - we cannot reach them, but their presence and similar position to ours give us comfort.

Irwin Yalom

Life must be lived now; it cannot be put off endlessly.

Irwin Yalom

Life means nothing, not yet thinking man who could interpret her phenomena.

Carl Gustav Jung

Meeting yourself is one of the most unpleasant.

Carl Gustav Jung

The meeting of two personalities is similar to the contact of two chemicals: If there is even the slightest reaction, both elements change.

Carl Gustav Jung

Everything that irritates others can lead to understanding oneself.

Carl Gustav Jung

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own soul.

Carl Gustav Jung

We often face despair that comes from the inability to make a choice or unwillingness to be ourselves; but the deepest despair comes when a person chooses “to not be himself, to be different.”

Carl Rogers

A person can go beyond his own limits only by relying on his own true nature, and not on ambitions and artificial goals.

Frederick Perls

Awareness of the present without running into the past or future leads to psychological growth. Experience the present in any at the moment is the only possible real experience, the condition for satisfaction and fullness of life, and consists in accepting with with an open heart this experience of the present.

Frederick Perls

There is no worse lie than a misunderstood truth.

William James

When you need to make a choice, but you don’t make it, that’s also a choice.

William James

The art of being wise is knowing what to ignore.

William James

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a person can change his life by changing his attitude towards it.

William James

There is a definition that says that meanings and values ​​are nothing more than reactive formations and defense mechanisms. As for me, I would not want to live for my reactive formations, much less die for my defense mechanisms.

Victor Fraknl

Happiness is like a butterfly. The more you catch it, the more it escapes. But if you turn your attention to other things, It will come and sit quietly on your shoulder.

Victor Frankl

The desire to find the meaning of life is the main motivating force in a person... I am not afraid to say that in the world there is no more effective help for survival even in the most terrible conditions than the knowledge that your life has meaning.

Victor Frankl

Suffering's purpose is to protect a person from apathy, from spiritual rigor.

Victor Frankl

Let those of you who are deprived neurotic manifestations, will be the first to throw a stone at me, be he a theologian or a psychiatrist.

Victor Frankl

Not the least of the lessons that I was able to learn from Auschwitz and Dachau was that the best chances of survival even in such conditions extreme situation had, I would say, those who were directed to the future, to the work that awaited them, to the meaning that they wanted to realize.

Victor Frankl

How tempting is popular talk about self-realization and human fulfillment! As if a person is intended only to satisfy his own needs or himself.

Victor Frankl

What matters is not our fears or our anxiety, but how we relate to them.

Victor Frankl

Life either has meaning, in which case meaning cannot disappear from anything that can happen. Either it does not make sense - but then this also does not depend on the events taking place.

Victor Frankl

Man has become a commodity and views his life as capital to be invested profitably. If he succeeds in this, then his life has meaning, and if not, he is a failure. His value is determined by demand, and not by his human merits: kindness, intelligence, artistic abilities.

Erich Fromm

The unfortunate fate of many people is a consequence of the choice they did not make. They are neither alive nor dead. Life turns out to be a burden, a pointless pursuit, and deeds are only a means of protection from the torments of existence in the kingdom of shadows.

Erich Fromm

Man’s task is to expand the space of his destiny, to strengthen what promotes life, as opposed to what leads to death. When I talk about life and death, I don't mean biological state, but the ways of human existence, his interaction with the world.

Erich Fromm

The main life task of a person is to give life to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important fruit of his efforts is his own personality.

Erich Fromm

The main danger in life is being overly cautious.

Alfred Adler

Harry Sullivan, psychoanalyst:

Love exists when the satisfaction and security of another person becomes as important as one's own satisfaction and security.

John Gottman, psychotherapist:

The greatest obstacle to love is the sense of self-importance that causes people to end marriage because they “deserve” the perfect partner.

Henry Dix, psychoanalyst:

The opposite of love is not hate. Both coexist as long as they remain live connection. The opposite of love is indifference.

Otto Kernberg, psychoanalyst:

IN love relationships there is a desire to complement oneself - starting with delight and satisfaction from the fact that another accepts and even enjoys in us what we ourselves did not accept, and ending with overcoming the limitations of one’s own gender in “bisexual” unity with a partner.

Heinz Kohut, psychoanalyst:

The more confidence with which a person is able to accept himself, the more defined his self-image, the more confident and effective he will be in expressing and offering his love, without experiencing excessive fear of being rejected and humiliated.

Karl Menninger, psychoanalyst:

A huge number of people suffer from unrequited love to yourself.

Esther Perel, psychotherapist:

Love has a price, but it should not require giving up oneself. It is difficult to find someone attractive who has completely renounced personal independence. It is probably possible to love such a person, but it is certainly difficult to lust after him. There is not enough resistance and tension. Loving each other without losing yourself is the greatest challenge of emotional intimacy.

Adam Phillips, psychoanalyst:

One way to love people is to recognize that they have desires that exclude us, that it is possible to love and desire more than one person at the same time. Everyone knows this is true, but we don't want those who love us to think that way about themselves.

Viktor Frankl, existential psychologist:

Love inevitably enriches the one who loves. And if so, there cannot be such a thing as “unrequited, unhappy love.” Love is the “experience” of another person in all his originality and uniqueness.

Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst:

If an individual loves only one person and is indifferent to others, his love is not love, but a symbiotic attachment or an overgrown narcissism.

Carl Jung, psychiatrist:

Where love reigns, there is no will to power; where the desire for power is paramount, love is absent. One is not a shadow of the other.


The selection contains statements collected by psychotherapist Konstantin Yagnyuk in the book “Under the sign of PSI. Aphorisms of famous psychologists."