Irvin D. Yalom · 272 pages
Rating: (3.5K votes)
“I explain to my patients that abused children often find it hard to disentangle themselves from their dysfunctional families, whereas children grow away from good, loving parents with far less conflict. After all, isn't that the task of a good parent, to enable the child to leave home?”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“every single person in the world is fundamentally alone. It’s hard, but that’s the way it is, and we have to face it.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“I hate it that she has so insinuated herself into the interstices of my mind that I can never root her out. And most of all, I hate that at the end of my life I feel compelled to ask, "How'd I do, Mama?".”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“Credinta, oricat de pasionata, de pura, de arzatoare, nu spune absolut nimic despre realitatea existentei lui Dumnezeu”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“Am invatat demult ca atunci cand intre doua persoane este un lucru grav si nu vorbesc despre el, nu vorbesc nici despre altceva important.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“Confruntarea cu moartea iminenta poate sa propulseze omul in intelepciune si la o noua profunzime a existentei.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“Cinstea mai presus de toate. Un sceptic convins in toate celelalte privinte, Ernest credea cu o fervoare fundamentalista in forta tamaduitoare a cinstei. Catehismul lui cerea cinste – insa o cinste temperata, selectiva. Si cinste responsabila, plina de grija: cinste in serviciul ingrijirii.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“Oamenii se iubesc pe ei insisi daca vad o imagine iubitoare a lor reflectata in ochii cuiva de care le pasa cu adevarat.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“Am invatat in munca mea, ca se tem cel mai mult de moarte cei care se apropie de ea avand prea multa viata netraita in ei. Cel mai bine este sa ne folosim toata viata. Sa nu-i lasam mortii decat drojdiile, nimic altceva decat un castel ars pana in temelii.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“Nu numai ca fictiunea isi are propriul adevar, dar orice povestire, oricat de „adevarata”, este o minciuna pentru ca omite atat de multe.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, quote from Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy
“He did not know what love was. And he did not know what good it was. But he knew he carried with him, a scabrous spot of rot, of contagion, for which there was no cure. Rage would not cure it. Indulgence made it worse, flamed it, made it grow like cancer. And it had ruined his life. Not now, not in this moment. Long before. The world had seemed a good and liveable place. Brutal, yes. but there was a certain joy in that. The brutality on the football fields, in the tonks, was celebration. Men were maimed without malice, sometimes--often even--in friendship. Lonely, yes. Running was lonely. Sweat was lonely. The pain of preparation was lonely. There's no way to share a pulled hamstring with somebody else. There's no way to farm out part of a twisted knee. But who in god's name ever assumed otherwise? Once you know that it was all bearable”
― Harry Crews, quote from A Feast of Snakes
“The usual procedure adopted by the critic is to imagine how wonderful everything would be if only he had his own way. In his dreams he eliminates every will opposed to his own by raising himself, or someone whose will coincides exactly with his, to the position of absolute master of the world. Everyone who preaches the right of the stronger considers himself as the stronger. He who espouses the institution of slavery never stops to reflect that he himself could be a slave. He who demands restrictions on the liberty of conscience demands it in regard to others, and not for himself. He who advocates an oligarchic form of government always includes himself in the oligarchy, and he who goes into ecstasies at the thought of enlightened despotism or dictatorship is immodest enough to allot to himself, in his daydreams, the role of the enlightened despot or dictator, or, at least, to expect that he himself will become the despot over the despot or the dictator over the dictator. Just as no one desires to see himself in the position of the weaker, of the oppressed, of the overpowered, of the negatively privileged, of the subject without rights; so, under socialism, no one desires himself otherwise than in the role of the general director or the mentor of the general director. In the dream and wish fantasies of socialism there is no other life that would be worth living.”
― Ludwig von Mises, quote from Liberalism: The Classical Tradition
“Those who do not run away from our pains but touch them with compassion bring healing and new strength. The paradox indeed is that the beginning of healing is in the solidarity with the pain. In”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, quote from Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
“The moon likes secrets,” Meran said. “And secret things. She lets mysteries bleed into her shadows and leaves us to ask whether they originated from otherworlds, or from our own imaginations.”
― Charles de Lint, quote from The Very Best of Charles de Lint
“The proprietor of the grocery store on the corner was bidding a silent farewell to a tomato which even he, though a dauntless optimist, had been compelled to recognize as having outlived its utility.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, quote from A Damsel in Distress
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