WIST Quotations

Adler, Alfred -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Austrian psychologist
(Attributed)
(Source)

Comment to friend (1927). In Phyllis Bottome, Alfred Adler: A Biography, ch. 5 (1939)

Adler, Alfred -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 16:15:18 +0000

I see only one danger about all this — that you might be led to take too many precautions. To take precautions, that, I find, is really dangerous. Courage is the only precaution a human being needs!

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Austrian psychologist
(Attributed)
(Source)

Comment to a patient who chronically overworked herself. In Phyllis Bottome, Alfred Adler: A Biography, ch. 4 (1939). Often paraphrased, "The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions."

Adler, Alfred -- The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections From His Writings, 9.D.2 (1929) [ed. Ansbacher & Ansbacher (1956)]

Dave — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:11:27 +0000

Everyone … has a feeling of inferiority. But the feeling of inferiority is not a disease; it is rather a stimulant to health, normal striving and development. It becomes a pathological condition only when the sense of inadequacy overwhelms the individual and, far from stimulating him to useful activity, makes him depressed and incapable of development.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Austrian psychologist
The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections From His Writings, 9.D.2 (1929) [ed. Ansbacher & Ansbacher (1956)]

Adler, Alfred -- The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, ch. 3, sec 3 (1956) [ed. Ansbacher]

Dave — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 05:02:44 +0000

To be a human being means to possess a feeling of inferiority which constantly presses towards its own conquest. … The greater the feeling of inferiority that has been experienced, the more powerful is the urge for conquest and the more violent the emotional agitation.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Austrian psychologist
The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, ch. 3, sec 3 (1956) [ed. Ansbacher]

Adler, Alfred -- The Problems of Neurosis, ch. 2 (1929)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder with the truth.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Austrian psychologist
The Problems of Neurosis, ch. 2 (1929)
(Source)

Adler, Alfred -- What Life Should Mean to You (1937)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Austrian psychologist
What Life Should Mean to You (1937)