Not to take possession of your life plan is to let your existence be an accident.
IRVIN D. YALOMThere was a time in our lives when we were so close that nothing seemed to obstruct our friendship and brotherhood, and only a small footbridge separated us.
More Irvin D. Yalom Quotes
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Though the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death may save us.
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Heidegger makes the distinction between being absorbed in the way things are in the world and being aware that things are in the world.
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Specialness as a primary mode of death transcendence takes a number of other maladaptive forms.
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Death anxiety is the mother of all religions, which, in one way or another, attempt to temper the anguish of our finitude.
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The drive for power is not uncommonly motivated by this dynamic. One’s own fear and sense of limitation is avoided by enlarging oneself and one’s sphere of control.
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Rather, love is a way of being, a “giving to,” not a ‘falling for”; a mode of relating at large, not an act limited to a single person.
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What? ‘Borderline patients play games’? That what you said? Ernest, you’ll never be a real therapist if you think like that. That’s exactly what I meant earlier when I talked about the dangers of diagnosis.
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I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.
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Absolute power, as we have always known, corrupts absolutely; it corrupts because it does not do the trick for the individual.
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Marriage and its entourage of possession and jealousy enslave the spirit.
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If people in their 20s had more death awareness, would that in fact temper their ambition or drive?
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Does a being who requires meaning find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?
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Hidden in disguise, leaking out in a variety of symptoms. It is the wellspring of many of our worries, stresses, and conflicts.
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Every person must choose how much truth he can stand.
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My hunch is yes. It would certainly do something for those who are most ruthless, who tend to make others most miserable.
IRVIN D. YALOM