Home / Authors / M. Scott Peck

M. Scott Peck

M. Scott Peck Quotes

Psychiatrist

M. Scott Peck was an American psychiatrist and writer, best known for his book 'The Road Less Traveled', which delves into themes of personal growth, psychotherapy, and the human mind. His writing style has been widely appreciated, and his works have had a profound impact on the fields of psychology and philosophy.

Filter quotes by topic

All Growth Spiritual Problem Discipline Love Is People Self Suffering Community Humans Ifs Pain Spiritual Growth Evil Love Road Less Travelled Thinking Way Facts Individual

Famous M. Scott Peck Quotes

“What people get admired and appreciated for in community are their soft skills: their sense of humor and timing, their ability to listen, their courage and honesty, their capacity for empathy.”

People Community Ability Honesty Skills Empathy Capacity Sense Of Humor Timing Appreciated

Author:M. Scott Peck

“The will to grow is, in essence, the same phenomenon as love. Genuinely loving people are, by definition, growing people.”

People Grows Growing Essence Definitions Phenomenon

Book:The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety

Source: The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety

“Since the primary motive of the evil is disguise, one of the places evil people are most likely to be found is within the church. What better way to conceal one's evil from oneself as well as from others than to be a deacon or some other highly visible form of Christian within our culture”

People Way Wells Christian Form Culture Evil Found Church Oneself Primaries Motive Visible Disguise Better Ways Evil People Deacons

Book:People of the Lie

Source: People of the Lie

“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.”

People Trying Humans Persons Two Problem Suffering Force Human Beings Vision Failing Planets Ought Fit Unique Expectations Guilt Stereotype Neurotic Explicit Good Marriage

Author:M. Scott Peck

“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.”

People Two Choices Love Is Exercise Capable Love Each Other Best Love Sweet Love Cute Love

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

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

“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.”

People World Answers Virtue Discipline And Love Extraordinary Mastery Competence

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

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

“An unconscious, gentle process whereby people who want to be loving attempt to be so by telling little white lies, by withholding some of the truth about themselves and their feelings in order to avoid conflict. Pseudocommunity is conflict-avoiding; true community is conflict-resolving.”

People Want Littles Feelings Lying Order Process Community White Conflict Gentle Unconscious Avoiding Withholding White Lie

Book:The Different Drum: Community-making and peace

Source: The Different Drum: Community-making and peace

“As Benjamin Franklin said, 'Those things that hurt, instruct.' It is for this reason that wise people learn not to dread but actually to welcome problems and actually to welcome the pain of problems.”

People Said Reason Problem Pain Spiritual Hurt Learning Wise Welcome Dread Franklin Wise People

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

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

“Evil people hate the light because it reveals themselves to themselves. ... They will destroy the light, the goodness, the love in order to avoid the pain of self-awareness. ... [E]vil is laziness carried to its ultimate, extraordinary extreme.”

People Self Light Truth Pain Hate Order Evil Awareness Goodness Ultimate Self Awareness Extraordinary Extremes Laziness Evil People

Author:M. Scott Peck

“I have learned nothing in twenty years that would suggest that evil people can be rapidly influenced by any means other than raw power. They do not respond, at least in the short run, to either gentle kindness or any form of spiritual persuasion with which I am familiar.”

People Years Mean Running Spiritual Form Evil Kindness Twenties Familiar Gentle I Have Learned Persuasion Evil People

Book:People of the Lie

Source: People of the Lie

“Idealists are people who believe in the potential of human nature for transformation. . . . The most essential attribute of human nature is its mutability and freedom from instinct . . . it is always within our power to change our nature. So it is actually the idealists who are on the mark and the realists who are off base.”

People Believe Humans Human Nature Essentials Mark Transformation Instinct Attributes Idealism Realist Idealist Power To Change Mutability

Book:People of the Lie

Source: People of the Lie

“Listening well is an exercise of attention and by necessity hard work. It is because they do not realize this or because they are not willing to do the work that most people do not listen well.”

People Wells Hard Realizing Attention Willing Hard Work Listening Exercise Working It

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

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

“While I generally find that great myths are great precisely because they represent and embody great universal truths, the myth of romantic love is a dreadful lie. Perhaps it is a necessary lie in that it ensures the survival 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.”

“To be free people we must assume total responsibility for ourselves, but in doing so must possess the capacity to reject responsibility that is not truly ours. To be organized and efficient, to live wisely, we must daily delay gratification and keep an eye on the future; yet to live joyously we must also possess the capacity, when it is not destructive, to live in the present and act spontaneously. In other words, discipline itself must be disciplined. The type of discipline required to discipline discipline is what I call balancing.”

People Eye Responsibility Type Discipline Capacity Assuming Organized Destructive Rejects Efficient Delay Gratification Live In The Present

Author:M. Scott Peck