372 quotes found
“People think you have only to tell a person that he ought to do something in order to put him on the right track. But whether he can or will do it is another matter.”
“The analysis of the psychological motivations behind certain doctrines or ideas can never be a substitute for a rational judgment of the validity of the doctrine and of the values which it implies,...”
“Thank you Bjork Peterson for a wonderful review of my new book "Why We Love Serial Killers" @readingghost”
“If you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority.”
“Know Thyself”
“Might it be possible at some future time, when neurophysiology has advanced substantially, to reconstruct the memories or insight of someone long dead?...It would be the ultimate breach of privacy.”
“Humans draw a hard line between thinking something and saying it aloud.”
“One of the great self-deceptions--and one of the great foolishnesses--is to tell yourself, Only I will know. Only you will know that you are a liar; only you will know you deal unethically with peo...”
“If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do. My Princeton colleague Danny Oppenheimer refuted a myth prevalent among undergr...”
“It is crucial for us to understand the origins of our low self-esteem before we can transcend it.”
“Self-esteem is the way you regard yourself as either being worth your mothers while to care for you, protect you and keep you safe and alive, to be present for you when you need her to meet your ne...”
“Socrates made people face their hypocrisy. He had to die.”
“The law (of least effort) asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effo...”
“It is not usually our ideas that make us optimists or pessimists, but it is our optimism or pessimism that makes our ideas.”
“Anyone who engages in the practice of psychotherapy confronts every day the devastation wrought by the teachings of religion.”
“How often I continue reflecting is it that we see what we want to see, rather than what is really before our eyes. In the trade we call this confirmation bias, and our brains are riddled with it....”
“In any culture, subculture, or family in which belief is valued above thought, and self-surrender is valued above self-expression, and conformity is valued above integrity, those who preserve their...”
“Vertigo is something else than the fear of falling. It is the voice of emptiness below us which temps and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defense ourselves.”
“No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand... Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.”
“You must have something in order to give it up.”
