338 Quotes by M. Scott Peck

What people get admired and appreciated for in community are their soft skills: their sense of humor and timing, their ability to listen, their courage and honesty, their capacity for empathy.

I have learned nothing in twenty years that would suggest that evil people can be rapidly influenced by any means other than raw power. They do not respond, at least in the short run, to either gentle kindness or any form of spiritual persuasion with which I am familiar.

Ultimately love is everything.

There is no worse bitterness than to reach the end of your life and realized you have not lived.

Life is difficult. This is the great truth, one of the greatest truths-it is a great truth because once we see this truth, we transcend it.

By far the most important form of attention we can give our loved ones is listening... True listening is love in action.

The only real security in life lies in relishing life's insecurity.

Worship is yet another paradox of the religious life: it is simultaneously the greatest duty and the greatest pleasure of faith. Worship is the act of truly loving God. Believe in this brilliant Being, this magnificent "higher power," who not only created us but nurtures us with care and intelligence beyond our imagination, and obviously we are called to worship Him.

Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live.