Meanings are not determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to situations.
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.
It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
Distorted history boasts of bellicose glory… and seduces the souls of boys to seek mystical bliss in bloodshed and in battles.
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events not of words. Trust movement.
It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.
The feeling of inferiority rules the mental life and can be clearly recognized as the sense of incompleteness and unfulfillment and in the uninterrupted struggle both of individuals and of humanity.
It is one of the most effective attitudes of the neurotic to measure thumbs down, so to speak, a real person by an ideal, since in doing so he can depreciate him as much as he wishes.
To all those who walk the path of human cooperation war must appear loathsome and inhuman.
Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy.
War is organized murder and torture against our brothers.
War is not the continuation of politics with different means, it is the greatest mass-crime perpetrated on the community of man.
No experience is a cause of success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences, so-called trauma – but we make out of them just what suits our purposes.
The test of one’s behavior pattern is their relationship to society, relationship to work and relationship to sex.
The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.
Death is really a great blessing for humanity, without it there could be no real progress. People who lived for ever would not only hamper and discourage the young, but they would themselves lack sufficient stimulus to be creative.
In the investigation of a neurotic style of life, we must always suspect an opponent, and note who suffers most because of the patient’s condition. Usually this is a member of the family.
The educator must believe in the potential power of his pupil, and he must employ all his art in seeking to bring his pupil to experience this power.
The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder, with the truth.
A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt dangerous.
It is the patriotic duty of every man to lie for his country.
The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
Every therapeutic cure, and still more, any awkward attempt to show the patient the truth, tears him from the cradle of his freedom from responsibility and must therefore reckon with the most vehement resistance.