WIST

We are the manger in which the Lord is born.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity,” 5.1 (1942) [tr. Hull (1958)]

Always behind what we imagine are our best deeds stands the devil, patting us paternally on the shoulder and whispering, “Well done!”

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“A Psychological View of Conscience” (1858)

As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through. The change must indeed begin with an individual; it might be any one of us. Nobody can afford to look around and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do himself.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“Approaching the Unconscious: Healing the Split,” Man and His Symbols (1964)

Deep down, below the surface of the average man’s conscience, he hears a voice whispering, “There is something not right,” no matter how much his rightness is supported by public opinion or by the moral code.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“Introduction to Wickes’s Analyse der Kinderseele” (1931), The Development of Personality [tr. R. Hull (1954)]

The greater the tension, the greater is the potential. Great energy springs from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon,” introduction (1942), Alchemical Studies [tr. R. Hull (1967)]

If there is anything we wish to change in our children, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“The Development of Personality” (1934) [tr. Hull (1954)]

His uncertainty forces the enthusiast to puff up his truths, of which he feels none too sure, and to win proselytes to his side in order that his followers may prove to himself the value and trustworthiness of his own convictions. … Only when convincing someone else does he feel safe from gnawing doubts.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious” (1.2) (1928) [tr. Hull (1953)]

Without freedom there can be no morality.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious,” 1.2 (1928)

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
(Attributed)

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
(Attributed)

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment, and especially on their children, than the unlived lives of the parents.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
(Attributed)

Science is the tool of the Western mind and with it more doors can be opened than with bare hands. It is part and parcel of our knowledge and obscures our insight only when it holds that the understanding given by it is the only kind there is.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
(Attributed)

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Erinnerungen, Traume, Gedanken (1962)

My interests drew me in different directions. On the one hand I was powerfully attracted by science, with its truths based on facts; on the other hand I was fascinated by everything to do with comparative religion. [...] In science I missed the factor of meaning; and in religion, that of empiricism.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963)

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963) (ed. Aniela Jaffe)

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, ch. 11 [ed. Aneila Jaffe] (1962)

Man always has some mental reservation, even in the face of divine decrees. Otherwise, where would be his freedom? And what would be the use of that freedom if it could not threaten Him who threatens it?

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, ch. 7 [ed. A Jaffe (1962)]

A special ability means a heavy expenditure of energy in a particular direction, with a consequent drain from some other side of life.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Modern Man in Search of a Soul, ch. 8 (1933) (trans. Dell & Baynes)

If people can be educated to see the lowly side of their own natures, it may be hoped that they will also learn to understand and to love their fellow men better. A little less hypocrisy and a little more tolerance toward oneself can only have good results in respect for our neighbors, for we are all too prone to transfer to our fellows the injustice and violence we inflict upon our own natures.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
New Paths in Psychology, Appendix I (1912)

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Psychological Types, “Conclusion” (1921)

Naturally, every age thinks that all ages before it were prejudiced, and today we think this more then ever and are just as wrong as all previous ages that thought so.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (1960)

Without necessity, nothing budges, the human personality least of all. It is tremendously conservative, not to say torpid. Only acute necessity is able to rouse it. The developing personality obeys no caprice, no command, no insight, only brute necessity.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
The Development of Personality, Title Essay (1934) [tr. Hull (1954)]

It is only our deeds that reveal who we are.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
The Development of Personality, Title Essay (1934) [tr. R. F. C. Hull (1954)]

Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
The Psychology of the Unconscious (1943)

The erotic instinct is something questionable, and will always be so whatever a future set of laws may have to say on the matter. It belongs, on the one hand, to the original animal nature of man, which will exist as long as man has an animal body. On the other hand, it is connected with the highest forms of the spirit. But it blooms only when the spirit and instinct are in true harmony. If one or the other aspect is missing, then an injury occurs, or at least there is a one-sided lack of balance which easily slips into the pathological. Too much of the animal disfigures the civilized human being, too much culture makes a sick animal.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
The Psychology of the Unconscious (1943)

You can take away a man’s gods, but only to give him others in return.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
The Undiscovered Self (1958)
Full text.

The real existence of an enemy upon whom one can foist off everything evil is an enormous relief to one’s conscience. You can then at least say, without hesitation, who the devil is; you are quite certain that the cause of your misfortune is outside, and not your own attitude.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Jung, “General Aspects of Dream Psychology” (1916) [tr. R. Hull (1960)]