50+ Abraham Maslow Quotes

To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Encounter Hammer Man Nail
We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Belief God Hero Human Being Refuge Saint Wise
A stupid man behaves stupidly, not because he wants to, or tries to, or is motivated to, but simply because he is what he is.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Behavior Man Stupid Stupidity Try
What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Awareness Change Himself Person
It isn’t normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Achievement Desire Difficult Psychology Rare Want
Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Objective Passion Passionate Real Truth
The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Human Men Race Sell Story Women
The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Appreciation Capacity Ecstasy Fortumate Gratitude Life Pleasure Wonder Wonderful
In a word, growth and improvement can come through pain and conflict.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Conflict Growth Improvement Pain
If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life. You will be evading your own capacities, your own possibilities.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Capable Capacity Delinerate Evade Possible Unhappiness
Perhaps adjustment and stabilization, while good because it cuts your pain, is also bad because development towards a higher ideal ceases?
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Adjustment Cease Development Goodness Pain
The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Consideration Happiness Important People Work
Be independent of the good opinion of other people.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Goodness Independence Opinion People
Secrecy, censorship, dishonesty, and blocking of communication threaten all the basic needs.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Block Censor Communication Dishonest Need
What you don’t know has power over you; knowing it brings it under your control, and makes it subject to your choice. Ignorance makes real choice impossible.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Choice Control Ignorance Impossible Power Subject
Creativity is a characteristic given to all human beings at birth.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Birth Characteristic Creative Human
I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Act Apprehensive Component Feeling Future Guilty Mental Moments Presence Wellness
The spiritual life is part of the human essence. It is a defining characteristic of human nature, without which human nature is not fully human.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Characteristic Essence Human Human Nature Life Spiritual
If the essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, he gets sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Core Deny Essential Immediately Person Sick Suppress
We crave and fear becoming truly ourselves.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Crave Fear Ourselves
When people appear to be something other than good and decent, it is only because they are reacting to stress, pain, or the deprivation of basic human needs such as security, love, and self-esteem.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Appearance Decent Human Love Pain Security Self Esteem Stress
We may define therapy as a search for value.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Search Therapy Value
A musician must make music, an artist must paint, an poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Artist Himself Music Paint Peace Poet Ultimate Writing
Don’t worry when you are not recognized but strive to be worthy of recognition.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Recognization Worry Worth
What one can be, one must be!
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Be Yourself Inspirational One Liner
The great lesson is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s backyard.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Family Friendship Lesson Life Neighbor Ordinary Sacred
Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy, however stable these experiences may have become to others.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

Appreciation Fresh Life Mental Health Pleasure Wellness Wonder

Abraham Maslow Quotes

Famous American psychologists