If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away Id still swim. And Id despise the one who gave up.

Education can become a self-fulfilling activity liberating in and of itself.

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.

What a man can be he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

All the evidence that we have indicates that it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being and certainly in almost every newborn baby that there is an active will toward health an impulse towards growth or towards the actualization.

Classic economic theory based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values.

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense a way of concealing motives and thoughts as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

If you only have a hammer you tend to see every problem as a nail.

A musician must make music an artist must paint a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

Being a full human being is difficult frightening and problematical.

I was awfully curious to find out why I didnt go insane.

You can see neurosis from below – as a sickness – as most psychiatrists see it. Or you can understand it as a compassionate man might: respecting the neurosis as a fumbling and inefficient effort toward good ends.

Work is that which you dislike doing but perform for the sake of external rewards. At school this takes the form of grades. In society it means money status privilege.

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

Good psychology should include all the methodological techniques without having loyalty to one method one idea or one person.

With a tree all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. Its made up of pioneers the beginners. Thats where the action is.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

Ones only rival is ones own potentialities. Ones only failure is failing to live up to ones own possibilities. In this sense every man can be a king and must therefore be treated like a king.

The fact is that people are good Give people affection and security and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.

Rioting is a childish way of trying to be a man but it takes time to rise out of the hell of hatred and frustration and accept that to be a man you dont have to riot.

What we need is a system of thought – you might even call it a religion – that can bind humans together. A system that would fit the Republic of Chad as well as the United States: a system that would supply our idealistic young people with something to believe in.

The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side… It has revealed to us much about mans shortcomings his illnesses his sins but little about his potentialities his virtues his achievable aspirations