Quotes from Scott Peck

Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit." – M. Scott Peck

it is not their sins per se that characterized evil people, rather it is the subtlety and persistence and consistency of their sins. This is because the central defect of evil is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it

When we avoid the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, we also avoid the growth that problems demand from us.

Our choices lie between the lesser of two evils, but it is still within our power to make these choices

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

Whenever we think of ourselves doing something for someone else, we are in some way denying our own responsibility. Whatever we do is done because we choose to do it, and we make that choice because it is the one that satisfies us the most. Whatever we do for someone else we do because it fulfills a need we have.

S'ils avaient un peu plus d'amour-propre, ils ne se laisseraient pas aller à se contenter (même avec passion) d'un objectif aussi superficiel et d'un avenir aussi étroit.

c'était moi qui souffrais de troubles du caractère, pas lui. J'étais responsable de mon temps. C'était à moi seul de décider comment je voulais l'utiliser et l'organiser.

Une vie de sagesse est une vie de contemplation et d'actions entremêlées.

Everyone in our culture desires to some extent to be loving, yet many are not in fact loving. I therefore conclude that the desire to love is not itself love. Love is as love does. Love is an act of will - namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love. No matter how much we may think we are loving, if we are in fact not loving, it is because we have chosen not to love and therefor do not love our good intentions.

Life is complex. Each one of us must make his own path through life. There are no self-help manuals, no formulas, no easy answers. The right road for one is the wrong road for another...The journey of life is not paved in blacktop; it is not brightly lit, and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness.

If we know exactly where we're going, exactly how to get there, and exactly what we'll see along the way, we won't learn anything.

Consciousness and Healing To proceed very far through the desert, you must be willing to meet existential suffering and work it through. In order to do this, the attitude toward pain has to change. This happens when we accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth.

All my life I used to wonder what I would become when I grew up. Then, about seven years ago, I realized that I was never going to grow up--that growing is an ever ongoing process.