As Plotinus tells us, we elected the body, the parents, the place, and the circumstances that suited the soul and that, as the myth says, belongs to its necessity. |
Too many people have been analyzing their pasts, their childhoods, their memories, their parents, and realizing that it doesn't do anything-or that it doesn't do enough. |
We need to work on the world so it will not be so oppressive. |
We can't change anything until we get some fresh ideas, until we begin to see things differently. |
I see happiness as a by-product. I don't think you can pursue happiness. I think that phrase is one of the very few mistakes the Founding Fathers made. |
We approach people the same way we approach our cars. We take the poor kid to a doctor and ask, What's wrong with him, how much will it cost, and when can I pick him up? |
You don't attack the grunts of Vietnam; you blame the theory behind the war. Nobody who fought in that war was at fault. It was the war itself that was at fault. It's the same thing with psychotherapy. |
Loss means losing what was We want to change but we don't want to lose. Without time for loss, we don't have time for soul. |
The culture is going into a psychological depression. We are concerned about our place in the world, about being competitive: Will my children have as much as I have? Will I ever own my own home? How can I pay for a new car? Are immigrants taking away my white world? |
We have to give value to authority. We have to give value to office, being in office, holding office. |
Instead of seeing depression as a dysfunction, it is a functioning phenomenon. It stops you cold, sets you down, makes you damn miserable. |
It's very hard to know what wisdom is. |
I'm cautious about a lot of words. |
If you are still being hurt by an event that happened to you at twelve, it is the thought that is hurting you now. |
I know my own deficiencies, one of which is that I had lived away from America for such a long time. It's called expatriate. |