“What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.”
“The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.”
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”
“If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.”
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.”
“The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.”
“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.”
“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.”
“If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.”
“The most beautiful fate, the most wonderful good fortune that can happen to any human being is to be paid for doing what he passionately loves to do.”
“Self-actualizing people have a deep feeling of kinship with others.”
“Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.”
“You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.”
“All the evidence that we have indicates that it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being, and certainly in almost every newborn baby, that there is an active will toward health.”
“It isn’t normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.”
“Be independent of the good opinion of other people.”
“In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.”
“Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety and risk.”
“One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious.”
“He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail.”
“Creativity is a characteristic given to all human beings at birth.”
“The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.”
“Human beings will realize their potentialities only when they are free to be themselves.”
“Self-actualized individuals are not self-centered or self-absorbed.”
“What we need is a system of values that is worth living for.”
“We are simultaneously gods and worms.”
“Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves.”
“To the extent that you can be comfortable with yourself, you can be comfortable with others.”
“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”
“Self-actualization is not a thing, an end product, or a standard to be met, but a never-ending process.”
“A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.”
“Self-actualizing people are, without one single exception, involved in a cause outside their own skin.”
“Growth is not a steady, upward climb. It’s more like a series of hills and valleys.”
“People with a growth mindset believe they can improve with effort.”
“One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities.”
“Only the flexibly creative person can really manage the future.”
“Self-actualized individuals live more fully in the present.”
“What a man can be, he must be.”
“Every person has a deep hunger for self-esteem.”
“Being a stable, self-respecting, self-accepting person means that you feel secure in the face of criticism.”
“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be at peace with himself.”
“What we can be, we must be.”
“We may define therapy as a search for value.”
“To love others, you must first be able to love yourself.”
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
“True independence is achieved by becoming your authentic self.”
“We are each responsible for our own life—no other person is or even can be.”
“Life’s value lies in the rich variety of personal experiences.”