Quotessence
Home / Authors / M. Scott Peck
M. Scott Peck

M. Scott Peck Quotes

Psychiatrist

Filter quotes by topic

AllGrowthSpiritualProblemDisciplineLove IsPeopleSelfSufferingCommunityHumans

Famous M. Scott Peck Quotes

“Since true listening involves a setting aside of the self, it also temporarily involves a total acceptance of the others. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will feel less and less vulnerable, and more and more inclined to open up the inner recesses of his or her mind to the listener. As this happens, speaker and listener begin to appreciate each other more and more, and the dance of love is begun again.”

FeelsMindSelfHappensLove IsAcceptanceListeningAppreciateSettingSettingsVulnerableSpeakersListenersRecessListening To OthersSensingSpeak Less
Book:The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Do what you feel called to do, but also be prepared to accept that you don't necessarily know what you're going to learn. Be willing to be surprised by forces beyond your control, and realize that a major learning on the journey is the art of surrender.”

KnowsFeelsArtForceRealizingAcceptingJourneyWillingMajorsPreparedSurrenderBe Prepared
Book:Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Towards Spiritual Growth
Create image

“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 how to get there. If the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost.”

IfsKnowsRealityLostViewsKnow HowMapsAccurateTerrain
Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Whenever we think of ourselves as doing something for someone else, we are in some way denying our own responsibility. Whatever we do is done because we choose to do it, and we make that choice because it is the one that satisfies us the most.”

ThinkingWayDoneChoicesResponsibility
Book:The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”

InspirationalMotivationalFunnyTimeValuesChoicesSelf EsteemSelf LoveHabitDisciplineManagementSelf ConfidenceSelf WorthEsteemManageMy TimeSelf RespectGood LifeTime ManagementProcrastinationWorth ItPsychiatristBest TimesTime LoveMaking TimeBoost Self ConfidenceRespect YourselfLife TimeSelf Esteem And ConfidenceValue Of LifeConfidence In YourselfConfidence BoostingTrue ValueStop ProcrastinationManaging TimeBoost Your ConfidenceLife And TimeMy Self WorthOld SelfGreat ValueJust Love YourselfConfidence And LoveInspiring Self EsteemTime Of Your LifeValue Of TimeInspirational ConfidenceSelf Worth And LoveTime ProverbsValue YourselfConfidence LovePositive SelfSelf Respect In LoveLost ConfidenceSelf Respect And LoveRoad Less TravelledValues And Respect
Author:M. Scott Peck
Create image

“The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual - for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.”

MindHumansHeartMaySoulWholeCharacterCoursesEvilIndividualLostChangeHistoryDependsIntegrityBattleHumbleGood And EvilSolitaryHuman HistoryGood Against EvilChange Of HeartGood EvilStruggle Between Good And EvilBattle Between Good And Evil
Book:The People Of The Lie
Create image

“The difficulty we have in accepting responsibility for our behavior lies in the desire to avoid the pain of the consequences of that behavior.”

PainLyingDesireResponsibilityAcceptingBehaviorConsequenceDifficultyAccepting Responsibility
Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.”

ProblemSpiritGrowthChangeForeverDevelopmentBarriersGoing AwayProblem SolvingSolution To A Problem
Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual or organization or entity. But this means we then give away our power to that entity.”

GivingMeanIndividualResponsibilityBehaviorOrganizationEntityAttempting
Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Genuine love is volitional rather than emotional. The person who truely loves does so because of a decision to love. This person has made a commitment to be loving whether or not the loving feeling is present. ...Conversely, it is not only possible but necessary for a loving person to avoid acting on feelings of love.”

PersonsDoeMadeFeelingsDecisionLove IsActingEmotionalCommitmentGenuineGenuine LoveLoving PersonRoad Less Travelled
Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

KnowsMatterFactsTruthSpiritualLife IsSpiritualityDifficultAcceptingKnowledgeLearningEncouragementManagementAcceptedRoad Less TraveledLife Is DifficultRoad Less Travelled
Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”

WayInspirationalDifferentMomentsFeelingsHappinessSpiritualAnswersStepsCreativityAwarenessTruth IsConflictDifficultyEncouragementAdversityUnhappyUncomfortableDifferent WaysFinestDiscomfortConflict ResolutionRutsJust Be HappyReinventionInspirational CareerSearching For HappinessMotivational CareerBeing UnhappyCourage To ChangeUncomfortable FeelingFinest Moments
Author:M. Scott Peck
Create image

“Since [narcissists] deep down, feel themselves to be faultless, it is inevitable that when they are in conflict with the world they will invariably perceive the conflict as the world's fault. Since they must deny their own badness, they must perceive others as bad. They project their own evil onto the world. They never think of themselves as evil, on the other hand, they consequently see much evil in others.”

ThinkingWorldFeelsHandsEvilConflictProjectsFaultsDenyInevitablePerceiveDeep DownNarcissistBadness
Author:M. Scott Peck
Create image

“Life is complex. Each one of us must make his own path through life. There are no self-help manuals, no formulas, no easy answers. The right road for one is the wrong road for another...The journey of life is not paved in blacktop; it is not brightly lit, and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness.”

SelfHelpingLife IsEasyAnswersPathJourneySelf HelpComplexesWildernessFormulasLitManualsLife JourneyRight RoadEasy AnswersWrong RoadRoad Sign
Author:M. Scott Peck
Create image

“All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up--that growing is an ever ongoing process.”

YearsUsedGrowsProcessWonderGrowing UpGrowingGrewGrew UpYears AgoSevenI RealizedSeven YearsOngoing
Book:Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Towards Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Consciousness and Healing To proceed very far through the desert, you must be willing to meet existential suffering and work it through. In order to do this, the attitude toward pain has to change. This happens when we accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth.”

Has BeensFactsHappensPainSpiritualSufferingOrderGrowthHealingConsciousnessAttitudeAcceptingWillingDesertSpiritual GrowthWorking ItExistential
Author:M. Scott Peck
Create image

“It is in the whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.”

WholeProblemPainGrowsProcessCuttingAdversityMeetingsEdgesProblem SolvingSuccess And FailureConfrontingCutting EdgeRoad Less TraveledRoad Less Travelled
Author:M. Scott Peck
Create image

“How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others... But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.”

WayFeelsShouldImportantCommunityAbilityShareStrangeCreaturesWeaknessFellowsWoundsAriseAffectedWoundedCompelledWoundedness
Author:M. Scott Peck
Create image

“Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex.”

ThinkingLifeLooksFactsLife IsCausesEasyAnswersMysteryGloryConsequenceAppreciateComplexesChaosSimplicityAppreciationComplexityUrgesAbandonParadoxFormulasInherentMultitudesSimplifyDismayedEasy Answers
Book:Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Towards Spiritual Growth
Create image

“I gave examples from my clinical practice of how love was not wholly a thought or feeling. I told of how that very evening there would be some man sitting at a bar in the local village, crying into his beer and sputtering to the bartender how much he loved his wife and children while at the same time he was wasting his family's money and depriving them of his attention. We recounted how this man was thinking love and feeling love--were they not real tears in his eyes?--but he was not in truth behaving with love.”

ThinkingMenLoveChildrenRealFeelingsWould BeEyeAgeAttentionPracticeWifeCryExampleTearsSittingBarsLocalsEveningBeerHis EyesVillageClinicalsBartenderDeprivingThinking Love
Book:Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption
Create image

“The problem of unmet expectations in marriage is primarily a problem of stereotyping. Each and every human being on this planet is a unique person. Since marriage is inevitably a relationship between two unique people, no one marriage is going to be exactly like any other. Yet we tend to wed with explicit visions of what a “good” marriage ought to be like. Then we suffer enormously from trying to force the relationship to fit the stereotype and from the neurotic guilt and anger we experience when we fail to pull it off.”

PeopleTryingHumansPersonsTwoProblemSufferingForceHuman BeingsVisionFailingPlanetsOughtFitUniqueExpectationsGuiltStereotypeNeuroticExplicitGood Marriage
Author:M. Scott Peck
Create image

“Love is the free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they are quite capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other.”

PeopleTwoChoicesLove IsExerciseCapableLove Each OtherBest LoveSweet LoveCute Love
Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Create image

“Spiritually evolved people, by virtue of their discipline, mastery and love, are people of extraordinary competence, and in their competence they are called on to serve the world, and in their love they answer the call.”

PeopleWorldAnswersVirtueDisciplineAnd LoveExtraordinaryMasteryCompetence
Book:The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Create image