382 Quotes by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Assimilating the style of predecessors is necessary before one can develop one’s own. Only by immersing oneself in the domain can one find out whether there is room left for contributing creatively to it, and whether one is capable of doing so.

The good things in life do not come only through the senses. Some of the most exhilarating experiences we undergo are generated inside the mind, triggered by information that challenges our ability to think, rather than from the use of sensory skills.

Second, to have a good life, it is not enough to remove what is wrong from it. We also need a positive goal, otherwise why keep going?

Whether we are happy depends on inner harmony, not on the controls we are able to exert over the great forces of the universe.

There are managers so preoccupied with their e-mail messages that they never look up from their screens to see what’s happening in the nondigital world.

Often we don’t have a good notion of what our talents are, because we have never had a chance to try them out.

As long as one strives to become a gourmet or a connoisseur of wines because it is the “in” thing to do, striving to master an externally imposed challenge, then taste may easily turn sour. But a cultivated palate provides many opportunities for flow if one approaches eating – and cooking – in a spirit of adventure and curiosity, exploring the potentials of food for the sake of the experience rather than as a showcase for one’s expertise.

Over the course of human evolution, as each group of people became gradually aware of the enormity of its isolation in the cosmos and of the precariousness of its hold on survival, it developed myths and beliefs to transform the random, crushing forces of the universe into manageable, or at least understandable, patterns.

When do we get to the interesting part – the tortured souls, the impossible dreams, the agony and the ecstasy of creation?