14 Quotes by Csikszentmihaly

It almost seems that occasionally giving up self-consciousness is necessary for building a strong self-concept.

The task is to learn how to enjoy everyday life without diminishing other people's chances to enjoy theirs.

Pain and pleasure occur in consciousness and exist only there

The essence of socialization is to make people dependent on social controls, to have them respond predictably to rewards and punishments.

...they make us dependent on a social system that exploits our energies for its own purposes. ...If a person learns to enjoy and find meaning in the ongoing stream of experience, in the process of living itself, the burden of social controls automatically falls from one's shoulders.

But it is impossible to enjoy a tennis game, a book, or a conversation unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity.

But anyone who has experienced flow knows that the deep enjoyment it provieds requires an equal degree of disciplined concentration.

But religions are only temporarily successful attempts to cope with the lack of meaning in life; they are not permanent answers.

The names we use to describe personality traits - such as extrovert, high achiever, or paranoid - refer to the specific patterns people have used to structure their attantion. At the same party, the extrovert will seek out and enjoy interactions with others, the high achiever will look for useful business conacts, and the paranoid will be on guard for signs of danger he must avoid. Attention can be invested in innumerable ways, ways that can make life eihther rich or miserable.