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Quotations by Carl Jung

Everything that irritates us - Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

The meeting of two personalities - The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

Knowing your own darkness - Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

Loneliness does not come from having no people - Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.

Make the unconscious conscious - Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

It is tragic to see how a man bungles his own life - It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going.

Coming to consciousness without pain - There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

Mistakes are foundations of truth - Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.

There are as many nights as days - There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

The shoe that fits one person - The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

The creation of something new - The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

The best work - The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others.

An understanding heart is everything in a teacher - An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.

Anything we wish to change in a child - If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

People become neurotic with inadequate or wrong answers - I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success of money, and remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking. Such people are usually confined within too narrow a spiritual horizon. Their life has not sufficient content, sufficient meaning. If they are enabled to develop into more spacious personalities, the neurosis generally disappears.

General neurosis of our times - About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can be defined as the general neurosis of our times.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by intellect - We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.

Playing with fantasy - Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.

The poorest of the beggars, the most impudent of offenders - What if I should discover that the poorest of the beggars and the most impudent of offenders are all within me; and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I, myself, am the enemy who must be loved -- what then?

Thinking is difficult - Thinking is difficult, that's why most people judge.

Whenever you hear anyone talking ab - Whenever you hear anyone talking about a cultural or even about a human problem, you should never forget to inquire who the speaker really is. The more general the problem, the more he will smuggle his own personal psychology into the account he gives of it.

The inferno of his passions - A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.

The sole purpose of human existence - As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Every form of addiction is bad - Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

Significance in the afternoon of human life - The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life's morning.

No will to power where love rules - Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

Crisis in marriage - Seldom, or perhaps never, does a marriage develop into an individual relationship smoothly and without crises; there is no coming to consciousness without pain.

Promising everything or too much - The man who promises everything is sure to fulfill nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition.

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