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.
IRVIN D. YALOMAs we reach the crest of life and look at the path before us, we apprehend that the path no longer ascends but slopes downward toward decline and diminishment. From that point on, concerns about death are never far from mind.
More Irvin D. Yalom Quotes
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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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A curious thought experiment. . . Nietzsche’s message to us was to live life in such a way that we would be willing to repeat the same life eternally
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Some sort of greater awareness of their own finiteness and what their time on earth really is, and what they really want to do with their lives, could help improve them.
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Some have expressed the very opposite feeling–the fear that they would not be interesting enough to write about.
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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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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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And if you do the latter, you’re not so worried about the everyday trivialities of life, for example, petty concerns about secrecy or privacy.
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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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Pandora’s box, but to re-enter life in a richer, more compassionate manner.
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None of my patients are really troubled by the idea that some part of what they say might be in a book in the future.
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The death anxiety of many people is fueled … by disappointment at never having fulfilled their potential.
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We take pleasure not only in the growth of our patient but also in the ripple effect—the salutary influence our patients have upon those whom they touch in life.
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I dream of a love that is more than two people craving to possess one another.
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The therapist can make the group feel safer by allowing each patient to set his or her limits and by emphasizing the patient’s control over every interaction.
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…the more unlived your life, the greater your death anxiety.
IRVIN D. YALOM