Maslow Quotes

“The pioneer, the creator, the explorer is generally a single, lonely person rather than a group, struggling all alone with his inner conflicts, fears, defenses against arrogance and pride, even against paranoia. He has to be a courageous man, not afraid to stick his neck out, not afraid even to make mistakes, well aware that he is, as Polanyi has stressed, a kind of gambler who comes to tentative conclusions in the absence of facts and then spends some years trying to figure out if his hunch was correct. If he has any sense at all, he is of course scared of his own ideas, of his temerity, and is well aware that he is affirming what he cannot prove.”

“We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under conditions of great courage. We enjoy and even thrill to godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities.”

“Work is of utmost importance in a person’s life and not only as a means of meeting one’s needs at various levels of Maslow’s pyramid. Believe me, I speak from experience when I say that good, focused hard work is also one of the most effective remedies for depression.”

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

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

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

“Marriage is a school itself. Also, having children. Becoming a father changed my whole life. It taught me as if by revelation.”

“Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.”

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

“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.”