Self-actualization best quotes, aphorisms, concepts, definitions and great ideas to understand the fundamental value of the meaning of the essence of self
Self-actualization and self-realization are two concepts in psychology, philosophy and spirituality that refer to the achievement of the possibilities and potentials of the self. Both terms may mean the goal or motivation that drives a human being, the process of achieving one’s potentials, or the state achievement of said potentials. In psychology, the two terms are sometimes used together interchangeably and mean the same with only subtle differences.
Even the dictionary meanings of the two terms are confusingly similar. When differentiated, the two terms are still used together as different steps in the process of achieving one’s full potential. As a matter of fact Self-actualization is the motive or drive to realize one’s full potential, hence it is commonly understood as a humanistic concept and it was first introduced and explored by German neurologist and psychiatrist Kurt Goldstein, while self-realization is the process and the goal of realizing one’s character or personality and the resulting full knowledge of one’s self and achievement of one’s potential.
Here lies a good fellow who spent his life while he had it.
Epitaph of Horatio Alger Jr.
Self-actualization is the oxygen for the soul.
Brain Johnson
Life is not in having and getting, but in being and becoming.
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888, British poet, critic)
The world will ask you… who you are? And if you don’t know, the world will tell you.
Carl Jung
Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve!
Mary Kay Ash (1918-2001, American businesswoman, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics)
Our business in life is not to get ahead of other people, but to get ahead of ourselves.
Maltbie D. Babcock
It is not what we read, but what we remember that makes us learned. It is not what we intend but what we do that makes us useful. And, it is not a few faint wishes but a lifelong struggle that makes us valiant.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887, American preacher, orator, writer)
In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.
Abraham Maslow
It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923, French actress)
It is impossible to be the best we can be in isolation.
Paula P. Brownlee
Our greatest joy and satisfaction comes from the act of giving.
Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998, American expert on love, lecturer, author)
Men do less than they ought, unless they do all they can.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881, Scottish philosopher, author)
Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.
Rumi
It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965, British statesman, Prime Minister)
How in the world could I have lived such a helpful life as I have lived had I not been blind?
Fanny Crosby (1820-1915, American hymn writer)
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them — character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881, Russian novelist)
Men cannot for long live hopefully unless they are embarked upon some great unifying enterprise — one for which they may pledge their lives, their fortunes and their honor.
Clarence Addison Dykstra
Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955, German-born American physicist)
It’s terrible to realize you don’t learn how to live until you’re ready to die and, then it’s too late.
Edna Ferber (1887-1968, American author)
Only those who have nothing in them have nothing to give.
Douglas G. Franklin
One of the greatest limitations in our world of philanthropy is the lack of understanding that there is, within each person, a yearning to be part of something larger than ourselves. Recognizing that need and meeting it is the reward of our ministry for humankind.
Arthur C. Frantzreb
Go toward self-actualization rather than self-image actualization… Search within… for honest self-expression.
Bruce Lee
Only by giving, only by serving, only by doing, do we really do something for ourselves.
James W. Frick
Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948, Indian political, spiritual leader)
I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work, and my God.
Helen Keller (1880-1968, American blind/deaf author, lecturer, amorist)
If I can dream, I can act; and if I can act, I can become.
Poh Yu Khing
It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Now is the time when your action is practice.
The Dalai Lama
It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.
Samuel Levenson
It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.
Samuel Levenson
What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.
Abraham H. Maslow (1908-1970, American psychologist)
The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming, and what one has in fact become.
Ashley Montagu (1905-1999, British anthropologist)
Youth expects fun in the getting, age reflects on the fun of having given.
Milton Murray
Living every day of your life fully, including the hard ones. Being the best you have it in you to be. And someday, being able to give something back.
Shirley Nelson
It is through self-forgetting service to others that the highest self-fulfillment is realized.
Norskov V. Olen
Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously and never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop this picture!
Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993, American Christian reformed pastor, speaker, author)
Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.
Janis Joplin
It’s no use waiting for your ship to come in, unless you’ve sent one out.
Belgian Proverb
Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.
St. Catherine of Siena
You can’t use your hand to force the sun to set.
Nigerian Proverb (Sayings of Nigerian origin)
Often the best way of giving oneself what one lacks is to take from oneself what one has.
Persian Proverb (Sayings of Persian origin)
Do not push the river, it will flow by itself.
Polish Proverb (Sayings of Polish origin)
I will strive to raise my own body and soul daily into all the higher powers of duty and happiness, not in rivalship or contention with others but for the help and delight and honor of others and for the joy and peace of my own life.
John Ruskin (1819-1900, British critic, social theorist)
Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950, Irish-born British dramatist)
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950, Irish-born British dramatist)
Every achiever that I have ever met says, “My life turned around when I began to believe in me.”
Robert H. Schuller (1926-, American minister, author, social leader)
A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be.
Bruce Springsteen (1949-, American musician, singer, songwriter)
Most people diffuse their psychic energy (attention) in hundreds of random ways. Those who flow focus their psychic energy intentionally upon the task at hand. It really boils down to knowing your goal, concentrating upon it, remaining determined and having the self-discipline to complete what you are doing.
Dick Sutphen
Do not settle for less than an extraordinary life.
Author Unknown
Don’t be afraid to go after what you want to do and what you want to be, and don’t be afraid to pay the price to get it.
Author Unknown
Don’t wish for it… work for it!
Author Unknown
If you wish to find yourself, you must first admit you are lost.
Brian Rathbone, Call of the Herald
God created all men equal. Why do some accomplish far greater accomplishments than others ?
Author Unknown
Most of us will never do great things, but we can do small things in a great way.
Author Unknown
It is not in everyone’s power to secure wealth, office, or honors; but everyone may be good, generous, and wise.
Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues
Nothing but what you volunteer has the essence of life, the springs of pleasure in it. These are the things you do because you want to do them, the things your spirit has chosen for its satisfaction. The more you are stimulated to such action the more clearly does it appear to you that you are a sovereign spirit, put into the world, not to wear a harness, but to work eagerly without it.
Woodrow T. Wilson (1856-1924, American President (28th))
Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to do what they want to do.
Kathleen Winsor
A woman is like a teabag – you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.
Eleanor Roosevelt
I do not want to die… until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown.
Ilatbe Kol Witz
Don’t go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
She remembered who she was and the game changed.
Lalah Delia
Have a dream so BIG that you cannot achieve it until you grow into the person who can.
Author Unknown
I was a late bloomer. But anyone who blooms at all, ever, is very lucky.
Sharon Olds
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