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.
IRVIN D. YALOMLife is a spark between two identical voids, the darkness before birth and the one after death.
More Irvin D. Yalom Quotes
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We project ourselves into the future through our children; we grow rich, famous, ever larger; we develop compulsive protective rituals; or we embrace an impregnable belief in an ultimate rescuer.
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To the extent that one is responsible for one’s life, one is alone.
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I must stop him from being one of those who call themselves good because they have no claws.
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The act of revealing oneself fully to another and still being accepted may be the major vehicle of therapeutic help.
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Many people are in despair because their dreams didn’t come true, and they despair even more that they did not make them come true.
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Love is not just a passion spark between two people; there is infinite difference between falling in love and standing in love.
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It’s not easy to live every moment wholly aware of death. It’s like trying to stare the sun in the face: you can stand only so much of it. Because we cannot live frozen in fear, we generate methods to soften death’s terror.
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When people don’t have any curiosity about themselves, that is always a bad sign.
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Mirroring, softly, barely audibly, just under the membrane of consciousness.
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Some piece of ourselves, not necessarily our consciousness, but some piece of ourselves gets passed on and on and on.
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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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Just as you were about to step on it, I asked you “Do you want to cross the footbridge to me?” – Immediately you did not want to anymore; and when I asked you again you remained silent.
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Marriage and its entourage of possession and jealousy enslave the spirit.
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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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Only free man are genuinely useful to one another and can form true friendships. And it’s absolutely permissible, by the highest right of Nature, for everyone to employ clear reason to determine how to live in a way that will allow him to flourish.
IRVIN D. YALOM