59 Quotes by Karen Horney

The conception of what is normal varies not only with the culture but also within the same culture, in the course of time.

the idea of a finished human product not only appears presumptuous but even, in my opinion, lacks any strong appeal. Life is struggle and striving, development and growth - and analysis is one of the means that can help in this process. Certainly its positive accomplishments are important, but also the striving itself is of intrinsic value.

There is no such thing as a normal psychology that holds for all people.

[Neurotics are] torn by inner conflicts ... Every neurotic ... is at war with himself.

miracles occur in psychoanalysis as seldom as anywhere else.

If I couldn't be pretty, I decided I would be smart.

Through the eclipse of large areas of the self, by repression and inhibition as well as by idealization and externalization, the individual loses sight of himself; he feels, if he does not actually become, like a shadow without weight and substance.

No one … can entirely step out of his time, that despite his keenness of vision his thinking is in many ways bound to be influenced by the mentality of his time

That many-faceted thing called love succeeds in building bridges from the loneliness on this shore to the loneliness on the other one. These bridges can be of great beauty, but they are rarely built for eternity, and frequently they cannot tolerate too heavy a burden without collapsing.