12 quotes
Every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
It is imperative that we should not pare down the meaning of a dream to fit some narrow doctrine. ... No language exists that cannot be misused.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
The meaning and design of a problem seem not to lie in its solution, but in our working at it incessantly.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
The shoe that fits one person pinches another.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
No psychic value can disappear without being replaced by another of equivalent intensity.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
But we must not forget that only a very few people are artists in life; that the art of life is the most distinguished and rarest of all the arts.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
For it all depends on how we look at things, and not on how they are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
Every interpretation is hypothetical, for it is a mere attempt to read an unfamiliar text. An obscure dream, taken by itself, can rarely be interpreted with any certainty, so that I attach little importance to the interpretation of single dreams.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
It is in applied psychology, if anywhere, that today we should be modest and grant validity to a number of apparently contradictory opinions; for we are still far from having anything like a thorough knowledge of the human psyche, that most challenging field of scientific enquiry. For the present we have merely more or less plausible opinions that defy reconciliation.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
Aging people should know that their lives are not mounting and unfolding but that an inexorable inner process forces the contraction of life. For a young person it is almost a sin — and certainly a danger — to be too much occupied with himself; but for the aging person it is a duty and a necessity to give serious attention to himself.
Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)