Abraham Maslow

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

“It isn't normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.”

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.”

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

“If the essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, he gets sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later.”

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"When people appear to be something other than good and decent, it is only because they are reacting to stress, pain, or the deprivation of basic human needs such as security, love, and self-esteem."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"All of life is education and everybody is a teacher and everybody is forever a pupil."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"What is life for? Life is for you."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"One's only failure is failing to live up to one's own possibilities."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"People are not evil; they are schlemiels."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"A stupid man behaves stupidly, not because he wants to, or tries to, or is motivated to, but simply because he is what he is."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"Language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"The good or healthy society would then be defined as one that permitted people's highest purposes to emerge by satisfying all their basic needs."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"We do what we are and we are what we do."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side... It has revealed to us much about man's shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations or his psychological health... We must find out what psychology might be if it could free itself from the stultifying effects of limited, pessimistic and stingy preoccupations with human nature."

— Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)