“While I generally find that great myths are great precisely because they represent and embody great universal truths (and will explore several such myths later in this book), the myth of romantic love is a dreadful lie. Perhaps it is a necessary lie in that it ensures the survival of the species by its encouragement and seeming validation of the falling-in-love experience that traps us into marriage. But as a psychiatrist I weep in my heart almost daily for the ghastly confusion and suffering that this myth fosters. Millions of people waste vast amounts of energy desperately and futilely attempting to make the reality of their lives conform to the unreality of the myth.”
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
“I have defined love as the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth. Genuine love is volitional rather than emotional. The person who truly loves does so because of a decision to love.”
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
“Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live.”
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
“Move out or grow in any dimension and pain as well as joy will be your reward. A full life will be full of pain.”
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
“Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are, and if we have decided where we want to go, we will generally know how to get there. If the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost. While this is obvious, it is something that most people to a greater or lesser degree choose to ignore. They ignore it because our route to reality is not easy. First of all, we are not born with maps; we have to make them, and the making requires effort. The more effort we make to appreciate and perceive reality, the larger and more accurate our maps will be. But many do not want to make this effort. Some stop making it by the end of adolescence. Their maps are small and sketchy, their views of the world narrow and misleading. By the end of middle age most people have given up the effort. They feel certain that their maps are complete and their Weltanschauung is correct (indeed, even sacrosanct), and they are no longer interested in new information. It is as if they are tired. Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death exploring the mystery of reality, ever enlarging and refining and redefining their understanding of the world and what is true.”
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
― The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
Patricia’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Patricia’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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