373 Quotes by Irvin D. Yalom

Living safely is dangerous

Sombres, dites-vous? Mais posez-vous la question docteur : pourquoi tous les grands philosophes sont-ils sombres? Demandez-vous qui sont les gens satisfaits, rassurés et éternellement joyeux! Laissez-moi vous donner la réponse : ce sont ceux qui ont une mauvaise vue ― la populace et les enfants!

Herkes aynı yemeği yemekten bıkar. Her güzel kadının olduğu yerde, bir de onu düzmekten bıkmış zavallı bir erkek vardır!

Önce zorunlu olanı istemek, sonra da istenileni sevmek gerekiyor.

Psychiatry is a strange field because, unlike any other field of medicine, you never really finish. Your greatest instrument is you, yourself, and the work of self-understanding is endless. I'm still learning.

I had, once again, fallen prey to the grandiose belief that I can treat anyone. Swept along by hubris and by my curiosity, I had disregarded twenty years of evidence at the outset that Thelma was a poor candidate for psychotherapy, and had subjected her to a painful confrontation which, in retrospect, had little likelihood of success. I had stripped away defenses without building anything to replace them.

two beliefs, or delusions, that afford a sense of safety. One is the belief in personal specialness; the other, the belief in an ultimate rescuer.

While the belief in personal specialness provides a sense of safety from within, the other major mechanism of death denial—belief in an ultimate rescuer—permits us to feel forever watched and protected by an outside force.

All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike. All is ephemeral—both memory and the object of memory.