55 Fascinating Psychology Quotes

Ever wonder what makes our minds tick or sought glimpses into the complexities of human behavior? Psychology, the study of the mind and behavior, unravels these mysteries and offers insight into our perceptions, emotions, and actions. Quotes about psychology not only encapsulate profound wisdom from experts in the field but also inspire us to think deeper about ourselves and the world around us. In this curated list of the top 55 fascinating psychology quotes, you'll find thought-provoking ideas from renowned psychologists, philosophers, and thinkers. These quotes invite you to explore the depths of the human psyche and reflect on the intricacies that define our mental landscapes. Whether you're a psychology enthusiast or just curious about what makes us human, these quotes are sure to inspire and engage.

1. “It's all in the mind.” - George Harrison

2. “Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event.” - Carl Gustav Jung

3. “The pleasure of living and the pleasure of the orgasm are identical. Extreme orgasm anxiety forms the basis of the general fear of life.” - Wilhelm Reich

4. “If a man felt hostility and aversion, but saw that he had poor or no grounds for his feeling, the remedy was to look for good or at least better grounds--a search hid predisposing thoughts would help him in.” - James Gould Cozzens

5. “People react predictably, especially when they don't have time to think.” - Keith Ablow

6. “His sudden mad love for Sibyl Vane was a psychological phenomenon of no small interest. There was no doubt that curiosity had much to do with it, curiosity and the desire for new experiences; yet it was not a simple but rather a very complex passion.” - Oscar Wilde

7. “Through others we become ourselves.” - Lev S. Vygotsky

8. “«Ты обязан вести себя как подобает», «Каждый человек должен трудиться», «Ты должен уважать взрослых».Обычно дети из таких фраз не узнают ничего нового. Ничего не меняется от того, что они слышат это в «сто первый раз». Они чувствуют давление внешнего авторитета, иногда вину, иногда скуку, а чаще всего все вместе взятое.Дело в том, что моральные устои и нравственное поведение воспитываются в детях не столько словами, сколько атмосферой в доме, через подражание поведению взрослых, прежде всего родителей. Если в семье все трудятся, воздерживаются от грубых слов, не лгут, делят домашнюю работу, – будьте уверены, ребенок знает, как надо себя правильно вести.Если же он нарушает «нормы поведения», то стоит посмотреть, не ведет ли себя кто-то в семье так же или похожим образом. Если эта причина отпадает, то скорее всего действует другая: ваш ребенок «выходит за рамки» из-за своей внутренней неустроенности, эмоционального неблагополучия. В обоих случаях словесные поучения – самый неудачный способ помочь делу.” - J. Gippenreiter

9. “What tricks the mind is what the mind is glad to be tricked by.” - John Christopher

10. “Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. ” - Carl Gustav Jung

11. “In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined.” - Thomas Stephen Szasz

12. “The most talented people are always the nicest.” - James Caan

13. “Shyness is just egoism out of its depth.” - Penelope Keith

14. “I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given their followers, and none of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook.” - Carl Gustav Jung

15. “They all know the truth, that there are only three subjects worth talking about. At least here in these parts," he says, "The weather, which, as they're farmers, affects everything else. Dying and birthing, of both people and animals. And what we eat - this last item comprising what we ate the day before and what we're planning to eat tomorrow. And all three of these major subjects encompass, in one way or another, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, the physical sciences, history, art, literature, and religion. We get around to sparring about all that counts in life but we usually do it while we're talking about food, it being a subject inseparable from every other subject. It's the table and the bed that count in life. And everything else we do, we do so we can get back to the table, back to the bed.” - Marlena De Blasi

16. “Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.” - Viktor E. Frankl

17. “The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

18. “Sometimes life seems like a poorly designed cage within which man has been sentenced to be free.” - Sheldon B. Kopp

19. “Go through the proper motions each day and you'll soon begin to feel the corresponding emotions!” - George W. Crane

20. “When a person feels powerless in regard to controlling his life, he can defend against the discomfort of such an experience by asserting control over someone else.” - A. Nicholas Groth

21. “Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.” - Marshall Rosenberg

22. “Meditation did not relieve me of my anxiety so much as flesh it out. It took my anxious response to the world, about which I felt a lot of confusion and shame, and let me understand it more completely. Perhaps the best way to phrase it is to say that meditation showed me that the other side of anxiety is desire. They exist in relationship to each other, not independently.” - Mark Epstein

23. “To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.” - James P. Carse

24. “What does your anxiety do? It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it empties today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it if it comes.” - Raymond L. Cramer

25. “In spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power-almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving. Could it be that only those things are considered worthy of being learned with which one can earn money or prestige, and that love, which "only" profits the soul, but is profitless in the modern sense, is a luxury we have no right to spend energy on?” - Erich Fromm

26. “Angie: "How do I pitch these ideas to her?"Mira: "From a distance, preferably wearing body armor.” - Kristin Hannah

27. “But it is the bane of psychology to suppose that where results are similar, processes must be the same. Psychologists are too apt to reason as geometers would, if the latter were to say that the diameter of a circle is the same thing as its semi-circumference, because, forsooth, they terminate in the same two points.” - William James

28. “People in the midst of losing their patience are certainly experiencing as aspect of dukkha.” - Allan Lokos

29. “An open beginner's mind is a powerful tool for developing patience.” - Allan Lokos

30. “A part of a healthy conscience is being able to confront consciencelessness. When you teach your daughter, explicitly or by passive rejection, that she must ignore her outrage, that she must be kind and accepting to the point of not defending herself or other people, that she must not rock the boat for any reason, you are NOT strengthening her prosocial sense, you are damaging it--and the first person she will stop protecting is herself.” - Martha Stout

31. “Shall we go?' he murmured, perhaps regretting his decision to show me his army of plastic cartoon figurines.” - Jon Ronson

32. “Human beings, viewed as behaving systems, are quite simple. The apparent complexity of our behavior over time is largely a reflection of the complexity of the environment in which we find ourselves.” - Herbert A. Simon

33. “Without energy being invested in resisting the unwanted or dueling with fears, we have more energy and attention available for noticing not only the disturbing, but the wonderful...When we are not fixated on threat and defending ourselves, when we're not exhausted and burned out from chronic stress, we are able to see the daily evidence that we are in the midst of a mind-blowing miracle called Life....Then we will experience breathtaking, heart-rippling moments that counterbalance every trial and tribulation. When we're fully conscious of the universe's artistry and generosity, who needs psychodelics or Prozac?” - Charlette Mikulka

34. “Oh, you know what bloggers are like, they write and write and write. I don't know why, because they're not being paid.” - Jon Ronson

35. “Shame and blame should have no place in our body, mind, or spirit.” - Asa Don Brown

36. “Childhood trauma does not come in one single package.” - Asa Don Brown

37. “Life is a purposeful action.” - Asa Don Brown

38. “We train the mind so that we can enjoy greater peace, happiness, wisdom & equanimity.” - Allan Lokos

39. “Your emotional understanding about the preciousness of your human birth comes through conscious, repetitive mind training.” - Tsoknyi Rinpoche

40. “Buddhism is all about science. If science is the systematic pursuit of the accurate knowledge of reality, then science is Buddhism, Buddhism is science.” - Robert A.F. Thurman

41. “For the most part, what we think of as 'I' is nothing more than a whole heap of conditioning.” - Etienne de L'Amour

42. “Don't just stand there and nod. The mind observes and cogitates, the heart engages, and I would encourage you to engage with the process.” - Etienne de L'Amour

43. “Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own: under the influence of music I have the illusion of feeling things I don't really feel, of understanding things I don't understand, being able to do things I'm not able to do (...) Can it really be allowable for anyone who feels like it to hypnotize another person, or many other persons, and then do what he likes with them? Particularly if the hypnotist is the first unscrupulous individual who happens to come along?” - Leo Tolstoy

44. “When you look in the mirror, your difficult sibling always looks back, though the image is distorted. In the shadows lurk parts of yourself and your past that you don't want to notice. Behind the reflection, silently influencing the interaction, stand your parents, your grandparents, and all their siblings.” - Jeanne Safer Jeanne Safer Ph.D.

45. “My God, these Feeling types! ... Sensitive people are just tyrannical people - everybody else has to adapt to them.” - Marie-Louise von Franz

46. “...But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will tun wild and cause you grief.” - Robert Greene

47. “How much more generous it would be if, instead of writing parables about childhood wounds, psychologists were to accept that some differences between the sexes just are, that they are in the nature of the beasts, because each sex has an evolved tendency to develop that way in response to experience.” - Matt Ridley

48. “The power-hungry individual follows a path to his own destruction.” - Adler

49. “If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.” - Mo Willems

50. “It's a mind, it works by metaphor.” - Simon J. Townley

51. “Bakat seakan menjadi tumbal, seolah dengan mudahnya menyalahkan Si Bakat terhadap hal-hal yang tidak mereka kuasai” - Wahyu Aditya

52. “Love is a kind of symptom that arises through the repression of libido.” - Frank Tallis

53. “No tenemos miedo porque la vida sea dificil, sino porque tenemos miedo la vida parece dificil” - Eddie mochon

54. “Equality is not the empirical claim that all groups of humans are interchangeable; it is the moral principle that individuals should not be judged or constrained by the average properties of their group.” - Steven Pinker

55. “Emptiness and the not-“I” is the quality that arises when the therapist consciously moves out of his own way without hindering the therapeutic process through his own ideas, attitudes, expectations and concepts. He is present, available and responds with the truth in the moment.” - Swami Dhyan Giten