373 Quotes by Irvin D. Yalom

Someone’s got to do some more research, but I would really like to know: when a CBT therapist really gets distressed, who does he go see?

A nightmare is a failed dream, a dream that, by not “handling” anxiety, has failed in its role as the guardian of sleep.

I often feel caught in a dilemma: on the one hand I wish to be more natural with you and yet, on the other hand, because I feel that you’re easily wounded and that you give my comments inordinate power, I feel I must consider my wording very, very carefully.

He was saying, fulfill yourself, realize your potential, live boldly and fully. Then, and only then, die without regret.

It is easier, far easier, to obey another than to command oneself.

Four givens are particularly relevant for psycho-therapy: the inevitability of death for each of us and for those we love; the freedom to make our lives as we will; our ultimate aloneness; and, finally, the absence of any obvious meaning or sense to life.

Beginning therapists must learn that there are times to sit in silence, sometimes in silent communion, sometimes simply while waiting for patients’ thoughts to appear in a form that they may be expressed.

Time cannot be broken; that is our greatest burden. And our greatest challenge is to live in spite of that burden.

At the end of his life, no man, if he be sincere and in possession of his faculties, would ever wish to go though it again. Rather than this, he will much prefer to choose complete nonexistence.