Quotes from Carl Jung

The psychiatrist knows only too well how each of us becomes the helpless but not pitiable victim of his own sentiments. Sentimentality is the superstructure erected upon brutality.

Healing comes only from that which leads the patient beyond himself and beyond his entanglements with ego....

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

The man who promises everything is sure to fulfill nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition.

The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.

The starry vault of heaven is in truth the open book of cosmic projection...

One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.

The puzzling thing is that there is really a curious coincidence between astrological and psychological facts, so that one can isolate time from the characteristics of an individual, and also, one can deduce characteristics from a certain time....

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

A 'scream' is always just that - a noise and not music.

Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purpose.

Yoga in Mayfair or Fifth Avenue, or in any other place which is on the telephone, is a spiritual fake.

At the moment I am looking into astrology, which seems indispensable for a proper understanding of mythology. There are strange and wondrous things in these lands of darkness. Please, don't worry about my wanderings in these infinitudes. I shall return laden with rich booty for our knowledge of the human psyche.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Creative powers can just as easily turn out to be destructive. It rests solely with the moral personality whether they apply themselves to good things or to bad. And if this is lacking, no teacher can supply it or take its place

Rational argument can be conducted with some prospect of success only so long as the emotionality of a given situation does not exceed a certain critical degree. If the affective temperature rises above this level, the possibility of reason's having any effect ceases and its place is taken by slogans and chimerical wish fantasies. That is to say, a sort of collective possession results which rapidly develops into a psychic epidemic.

Religion is a defense against the experience of God.

Sometimes, indeed, there is such a discrepancy between the genius and his human qualities that one has to ask oneself whether a little less talent might not have been better.

The Christian missionary may preach the gospel to the poor naked heathen, but the spiritual heathen who populate Europe have as yet heard nothing of Christianity.

The healthy man does not torture others -- generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.

The word "happiness" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Thinking is difficult. Therefore, let the herd pronounce judgement.

To me dreams are part of nature, which harbors no intention to deceive but expresses something as best it can.