63 Quotes by Bruno Bettelheim

The ability to read becomes devalued when what one has learned to read adds nothing of importance to one’s life.

The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one’s children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them.

Among the most valuable but least appreciated experiences parenthood can provide are the opportunities it offers for exploring, reliving, and resolving one’s own childhood problems in the context of one’s relation to one’s child.

Even Aristotle, master of pure reason, said: ‘The friend of wisdom is also a friend of myth.

Therefore, even more than at the times fairy tales were invented, it is important to provide the modern child with images of heroes who have to go out into the world all by themselves and who, although originally ignorant of the ultimate things, find secure places in the world by following their right way with deep inner confidence.

He disappears, and her endless wanderings in search of him take her to the moon, the sun, and the wind.

The child, so much more insecure than an adult, needs assurance that his need to engage in fantasy, or his inability to stop doing so, is not a deficiency.

When a world goes to pieces, when inhumanity reigns supreme, man cannot go on with business as usual.

The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one's children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them.