Human Psyche Quotes

“Although I have always rejected this fear of the other, and the racism that it inevitably fuels, I have learned from experience that it is a deeply rooted need in the human psyche. at the slightest provocation we will put distance between ourselves and those we cannot or do not want to understand”
― Susan Nathan, The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide

“For all our secular rationalism and technological advances, potential for surrender to the charms of magical thinking remains embedded in the human psyche, awaiting only the advertiser to awaken it.”
― Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads

“We all hold a beast inside. The only difference is what form it takes when freed.”
― Mary Lindsey, Haven

“Have patience with the byzantine can of worms that is you. Cluttered and sloppy and chaotic, you may be, but you’re easy on the eye and you’re getting warmer.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“The creator of Bambi was secretly writing pornographic novels on the side. This single fact tells you everything you need to know about turn-of-the-century Vienna, and why it was the perfect place for Sigmund Freud and his far-fetched theories about the human psyche.”
― Eric Weiner, The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley

“Maybe Zimbardo wasn’t wrong, after all, given the proper instructions or rules, we slipped into our own assigned roles in society without even questioning the morality of what we do.”
― Amelia Danver, Claiming You in Eden

“If you observe a person closely enough, you'll end up knowing more about them than they do.”
― Hesse, Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend

“Given the distinct pressures to specialize in various professional fields, we are losing track of the advantages of developing in the entirety of the human psyche.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“By being or having I do not refer to certain separate qualities of a subject as illustrated in such statements as „I have a car“ or „I am white“ or „I am happy.“ I refer to two fundamental modes of existence, to two different kinds of orientation toward self and the world, to two different kinds of character structure the respective predominance of which determines the totality of a person’s thinking, feeling, and acting.

In the having mode of existence my relationship to the world is one of possessing and owning, one in which I want to make everybody and everything, including myself, my property. In the being mode of existence, we must identify two forms of being. One is in contrast to having, as exemplified in the Du Marais statement, and means aliveness and authentic relatedness to the world. The other form of being is in contrast to appearing and refers to the true nature, the true reality, of a person or a thing in contrast to deceptive appearances as exemplified in the etymology of being (Benveniste).”
― Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? The Nature of the Psyche

“Some scholars compare human biochemistry to an air-conditioning system that keeps the temperature constant, come heatwave or snowstorm. Events might momentarily change the temperature, but the air-conditioning system always returns the temperature to the same set point.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind