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Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers Quotes

Psychologist

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Famous Carl Rogers Quotes

“When the other person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified; or when he or she is doubtful of self-worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for. The gentle and sensitive companionship of an empathic stance… provides illumination and healing. In such situations deep understanding is, I believe, the most precious gift one can give to another.”

GivingBelievePersonsSelfI BelieveUnderstandingHurtHealingSituationIdentityEmpathySelf WorthGentleSensitiveConfusedAnxiousUncertainTerrifiedCompanionshipIlluminationDoubtfulStancePrecious GiftsDeep Understanding
Author:Carl Rogers
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“I hear the words, the thoughts, the feeling tones, the personal meaning, even the meaning that is below the conscious intent of the speaker. Sometimes too, in a message which superficially is not very important, I hear a deep human cry that lies buried and unknown far below the surface of the person. So I have learned to ask myself, can I hear the sounds and sense the shape of this other person's inner world? Can I resonate to what he is saying so deeply that I sense the meanings he is afraid of, yet would like to communicate, as well as those he knows?”

KnowsWorldHumansWellsPersonsImportantSometimesFeelingsLyingAsksSoundCryShapesMessagesConsciousCommunicateSurfaceToneBuriedSpeakersI Have LearnedInner WorldBelow The Surface
Author:Carl Rogers
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“When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good. . . . When I have been listened to and when I have been heard, I am able to re-perceive my world in a new way and to go on. It is astonishing how elements which seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens. How confusions which seem irremediable turn into relatively clear flowing streams when one is heard.”

WorldWayFeelsTryingHas BeensSeemsAbleTurnsResponsibilityClearHeardListeningGoes OnElementsJudgmentEmpathyPassingPassingsConfusionPerceiveDamnStreamsNew WaysTaking ResponsibilityAstonishingMoldDamn GoodPassing Judgment
Author:Carl Rogers
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“A second characteristic of the process which for me is the good life, is that it involves an increasingly tendency to live fully in each moment. I believe it would be evident that for the person who was fully open to his new experience, completely without defensiveness, each moment would be new.”

BelievePersonsMomentsWould BeLife IsI BelieveProcessTendenciesCharacteristicsGood LifeEvidentNew ExperiencesDefensiveness
Book:On becoming a person: a therapist's view of psychotherapy
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“Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming me.”

PersonsIdeasProcessMy OwnReturnBecomingAuthorityHighestAgain And AgainValidityTouchstonesApproximation
Book:On becoming a person: a therapist's view of psychotherapy
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“This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.”

MeanLife IsProcessGrowingBecomingOneselfConvincedStreamsGood LifeHeartedStretchingBecoming MoreLaunchingFaint Hearted
Book:On becoming a person: a therapist's view of psychotherapy
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“The mainspring of creativity appears to be the same tendency which we discover so deeply as the curative force in psychotherapy, man's tendency to actualize himself, to become his potentialities. By this I mean the organic and human life, the urge to expand, extend, develop, mature - the tendency to express and activate all the capacities of the organism, or the self.”

MenHumansMeanSelfForceCreativityCapacityTendenciesHuman LifeUrgesMatureOrganismsPsychotherapyActivate
Book:On becoming a person: a therapist's view of psychotherapy
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“An empathic way of being can be learned from empathic persons. Perhaps the most important statement of all is that the ability to be accurately empathic is something which can be developed by training. Therapists, parents and teachers can be helped to become empathic. This is especially likely to occur if their teachers and supervisors are themselves individuals of sensitive understanding. It is most encouraging to know that this subtle, elusive quality, of utmost importance in therapy, is not something one is "born with", but can be learned, and learned most rapidly in an empathic climate.”

IfsKnowsWayPersonsImportantIndividualParentUnderstandingBornAbilityQualityTeacherEmpathyTrainingImportanceClimateStatementsTherapySensitiveSubtleElusiveTherapistsParents And TeachersSupervisorsMost Encouraging
Author:Carl Rogers
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“To perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person, but without ever losing the "as if" condition. Thus, it means to sense the hurt or the pleasure of another as he senses it and to perceive the causes thereof as he perceives them, but without ever losing the recognition that it is as if I were hurt or pleased and so forth.”

IfsMeanPersonsCausesHurtPleasureConditionsEmotionalLosingEmpathySensesRecognitionPerceiveInternalsComponentsAccuracyFrame Of ReferenceI Was Hurt
Book:A Way of Being
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“When I can relax, and be close to the transcendental core of me, then I may behave in strange and impulsive ways in the relationship, ways I cannot justify rationally, which have nothing to do with my thought processes. But these strange behaviors turn out to be right in some odd way. At these moments it seems that my inner spirit has reached out and touched the inner spirit of the other. Our relationship transcends itself and has become something larger.”

WayMayI CanMomentsSeemsSpiritTurnsProcessStrangeBehaviorEmpathyCoreOddBehaveRelaxTouchedJustifyOur RelationshipMy ThoughtsTranscendentalImpulsiveThought Process
Book:A Way of Being
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“I believe I know why it is satisfying to me to hear someone. When I can really hear someone, it puts me in touch with him; it enriches my life. It is through hearing people that I have learned all that I know about individuals, about personality, about interpersonal relationships.”

PeopleKnowsBelieveI CanIndividualI BelieveListeningPersonalityEmpathyHearingSatisfyingI Have LearnedInterpersonalInterpersonal Relationship
Book:A Way of Being
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“There is another peculiar satisfaction in really hearing someone: It is like listening to the music of the spheres, because beyond the immediate message of the person, no matter what that might be, there is the universal. Hidden in all of the personal communications which I really hear there seem to be orderly psychological laws, aspects of the same order we find in the universe as a whole. So there is both the satisfaction of hearing this person and also the satisfaction of feeling one's self in touch with what is universally true.”

PersonsSelfMatterWholeFeelingsSeemsMightLawOrderUniverseCommunicationListeningMessagesEmpathyAspectUniversalNo Matter WhatSatisfactionHearingPsychologicalPeculiarSpheresOrderly
Book:A Way of Being
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“So, as you can readily see from what I have said thus far, a creative, active, sensitive, accurate, empathic, nonjudgmental listening is for me terribly important in a relationship. It is important for me to provide it; it has been extremely important, especially at certain times in my life, to receive it. I feel that I have grown within myself when I have provided it; I am very sure that I have grown and been released and enhanced when I have received this kind of listening.”

FeelsKindHas BeensSaidImportantCertainCreativeListeningEmpathyActiveSensitiveAccurate
Book:A Way of Being
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“The way of being with another person which is termed empathic...means temporarily living in their life, moving abut in it delicately without making judgment... to be with another in this way means that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter the other's world without prejudice...a complex, demanding, strong yet subtle and gentle way of being.”

WorldWayMeanPersonsMovingValuesOrderStrongUnderstandingViewsListeningJudgmentEmpathyPrejudiceLaysComplexesGentleSubtle
Author:Carl Rogers
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