Quotes from M. Scott Peck

Scientists have grave difficulty dealing with the reality of God.

Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems.

process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning.

This tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all

ascertain, Jersey had no knowledge of demonology. At this point, all I could do was tell her and her family that I was very uncertain about the case, and that, after I got home, I would be

wise people learn not to dread but actually to welcome problems and actually to welcome the pain of problems.

we shall in the next section examine the will to use them, which is love.

It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.1 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.

This transformation occurred by virtue of the fact that Orestes was willing to accept responsibility for his mental illness.

La vida es difícil. Esta es una gran verdad, una de las más grandes.[1] Es una gran verdad porque, una vez que la comprendemos realmente, la trascendemos. Cuando nos damos cuenta de que la vida es difícil —en el momento en que lo hemos comprendido y aceptado verdaderamente—, ya no resulta difícil, porque una vez que se acepta esta verdad, la dificultad de la vida ya no importa.

There are four: delaying of gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing.

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

We live our lives in the eye of God, and not at the periphery but at the center of His vision, His concern.

Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with.

This tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness.

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.1 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. Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult.

What are these tools, these techniques of suffering, these means of experiencing the pain of problems constructively that I call discipline? There are four: delaying of gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing.

depressive symptoms are a sign to the suffering individual that all is not right with him or her and major adjustments need to be made. Many of the case histories I have used to demonstrate other principles can also be used to illustrate this one: that the unpleasant symptoms of mental illness serve to notify people that they have taken the wrong path, that their spirits are not growing and are in grave jeopardy.

Some basically unloving parents, in an attempt to cover up their lack of caring, make frequent professions of love to their children, repetitively and mechanically telling them how much they are valued, but not devoting significant time of high quality to them. Their children are never totally deceived by such hollow words. Consciously they may cling to them, wanting to believe that they are loved, but unconsciously they know that their parents' words do not match up with their deeds.

wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually.

Whatever action we take may influence the course of civilization.

In my personal struggle for maturity, I am gradually becoming aware of new insights, which tend as if of the themselves to want to slip away from me.

One measure—and perhaps the best measure—of a person's greatness is the capacity for suffering.