Quotessence
Home / Authors / James Hollis

James Hollis Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPsychologyChangeMenAnalytical PsychologyConsciousnessIndividuationDepth PsychologyJourneyWorldArchetypal Psychology

Famous James Hollis Quotes

“Today, as we have seen, fascism and communism are discredited, but are replaced by a paraphilic consumer culture driven by fantasy, desperately in search of distractions and escalating sensations, and a fundamentalist culture wherein the rigors of a private journey are shunned in favor of an ideology that, at the expense of the paradoxes and complexities of truth, favors one-sided resolutions, black-and-white values, and a privileging of one's own complexes as the norm for others.”

TodayValuesCultureBlackWhiteFantasyJourneyComplexesDrivenFavorsIdeologyCommunismConsumersComplexityParadoxResolutionExpensesSensationsDistractionFascismBlack And WhiteReplacedNormFundamentalistRigorOne SidedConsumer CultureEscalating
Author:James Hollis
Create image

“How many of those who are insecure seek power over others as a compensation for inadequacy and wind up bringing consequences down upon their heads and those around them? How many hide out in their lives, resist the summons to show up, or live fugitive lives, jealous, projecting onto others, and then wonder why nothing ever really feels quite right. How many proffer compliance with the other, buying peace at the price of soul, and wind up with neither?”

FeelsSoulShowsWonderWindConsequenceBuyingJealousInsecureCompensationInadequacyComplianceFugitivePower Over Others
Author:James Hollis
Create image

“In moments of spiritual crisis we naturally fall back upon what worked for us, or seemed to work, heretofore. Sometimes this shows up through the reassertion of our old values in belligerent, testy ways. Regression of any kind is just such a return to old presumptions, often after they have been shown to be insufficient for the complexity of larger questions. The virtue of the old presumptions is that they once worked, or seemed to work, and therein lies if not certainty, then nostalgia for a previous, presumptive security. In our private lives, we frequently fall back upon our old roles.”

IfsWayKindHas BeensSometimesMomentsShowsSpiritualLyingValuesFallRolesVirtueSecurityReturnCrisisNostalgiaCertaintyComplexityPrivate LifeFall BackPresumptionInsufficientRegressionSpiritual CrisisOld Values
Book:What Matters Most: Living a More Considered Life
Create image

“To become a person does not necessarily mean to be well adjusted, well adapted, approved of by others. It means to become who you are. We are meant to become more eccentric, more peculiar, more odd. We are not meant just to fit in. We are here to be different. We are here to be the individual.”

WellsMeanPersonsDoeDifferentIndividualDifferencesFitWho You AreIndividualityOddBeing YourselfMeant To BePeculiarAdjustmentFittingEccentricBeing DifferentAdaptedApprovedIndividual Differences
Author:James Hollis
Create image

“One of the most powerful shocks of the Middle Passage is the collapse of our tacit contract with the universe-the assumption that if we act correctly, if we are of good heart and good intentions, things will work out. We assume a reciprocity with the universe. If we do our part, the universe will comply. Many ancient stories, including the Book of Job, painfully reveal the fact that there is no such contract, and everyone who goes through the Middle Passage is made aware of it.”

IfsHeartMadeBookFactsStoriesJobsUniversePowerfulMiddleAssumingIntentionIncludingAncientWork OutAssumptionShockMost PowerfulContractsPassagesCollapseGood IntentionsReciprocityGood HeartTacitThings Will Work OutMiddle Passage
Book:The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife
Create image