382 Quotes by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives...most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity...when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

Attention is psychic energy, and like physical energy, unless we allocate some part of it to the task at hand, no work gets done.

Studying creativity is not an elite distraction, but provides one of the most exciting models for living.

To live means to experience-through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience takes place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have. Over the years, the content of experience will determine the quality of life. Therefore one of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested.

The more a person feels skilled, the more her moods will improve; while the more challenges that are present, the more her attention will become focused and concentrated.

The mood state Americans are in, on average, when watching television is mildly depressed.

Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act, and came to the following conclusion: "I thought to myself, well if that's the case and if what I'm scared of isn't death, but getting to the end with regrets, then I've got to figure out what would be the things that I would regret when I got to the last act if I hadn't done them or achieved them by then. And they were: having an intimate relationship and having made a difference."

A person who forgoes the use of his symbolic skills is never really free.

When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.