Top Quotes from Carl Jung

About Carl Jung

Carl Jung, a pioneering explorer of the human psyche and a transformative force in psychology and philosophy, emerges as a profound thinker who delved into the depths of the unconscious and reshaped our understanding of the human experience. Born on July 26, 1875, in Kesswil, Switzerland, Jung's intellectual journey led him to uncover the intricate interplay between the conscious and unconscious realms of the mind, unveiling profound insights into the complexities of human behavior and the mysteries of the soul.

Beyond his revolutionary theories, Jung's exploration of spirituality and the transcendent realm set him apart as a philosopher attuned to the mysteries of existence. His concept of the self, a unifying archetype representing the synthesis of conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche, resonates with the quest for a higher, more integrated state of being. Jung's work invites individuals to explore the depths of their inner worlds, cultivating a relationship with the numinous and the profound sense of connection to something greater than the self.

Jung's deep respect for the cultural and spiritual diversity of human experience showcased his commitment to a holistic understanding of the human condition. His engagement with Eastern philosophies, mythology, and religious traditions demonstrated an open-minded approach that transcended the limitations of Western thought. He recognized that the wisdom of the ages, drawn from various cultures, holds the potential to enrich our understanding of the psyche and the collective unconscious.

A true intellectual pioneer, Carl Jung's influence extended beyond the realm of psychology. His insights penetrated into literature, art, and even the broader currents of cultural thought. His collaborations with artists like Wolfgang Pauli and his engagement with the depths of creativity revealed his belief in the transformative power of the unconscious in shaping the course of human evolution.

Jung's enduring legacy serves as an invitation to journey inward, to explore the labyrinthine landscapes of the mind, and to embrace the intricate web of human experience. His work encourages us to confront our inner conflicts, embrace the richness of our symbolic language, and ultimately embark on the transformative path of individuation. In a world striving for self-understanding and meaning, Carl Jung's wisdom remains a guiding light, inspiring us to uncover the profound depths of our own psyches and to connect with the universal tapestry that binds us all.

Carl Jung Quotes

-Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

― Carl Jung

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

― Carl Jung

Life calls not for perfection, but for completeness.

― Carl Jung

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

― Carl Gustav Jung

One finds one's destiny on the path one takes to avoid it.

― Carl Jung

We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

― Carl Jung

I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.

― Carl Jung

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

― Carl Gustav Jung

You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.

― Carl Gustav Jung

Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

― Carl Jung

-Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.

― Carl Jung

In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.

― Carl Jung

The descent into the depths always seems to precede the ascent.

― Carl Jung

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness's of other people.

― Carl Jung

Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.”

― Carl Gustav Jung

-Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you.

― Carl Jung

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.

― Carl Jung

When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.

― Carl Jung

The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

― Carl Gustav Jung

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.

― Carl Jung

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.

― Carl Gustav Jung

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

― Carl Jung

God enters through the wound.

― Carl Jung

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.

― Carl Jung

As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know.

― Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

We are not what happened to us, we are what we wish to become.

― Carl Jung

 

You must go in quest of yourself, and you will find yourself again only in the simple and forgotten things.

― Carl Jung

I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.

― Carl Jung

Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research.

― Carl Jung

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.

― C.G. Jung

The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire.

― Carl Jung

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

― Carl Jung

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

― Carl Jung

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

― Carl Gustav Jung

The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.

― Carl Jung

No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.

― Carl Jung

Wisdom accepts that all things have two sides.

― Carl Jung

Normality is a fine ideal for those who have no imagination.

― Carl Jung

Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune.

― Carl Jung

Be grateful for your difficulties and challenges, for they hold blessings. In fact... Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health personal growth, individuation and self-actualization.

― Carl Jung

Embrace your grief. For there, your soul will grow.

― Carl Jung

Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.

― Carl Jung

We don't really heal anything; we simply let it go.

― Carl Jung

The man who promises everything is sure to fulfil 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.

― Carl Jung

Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full.

― Carl Jung

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.

― Carl Jung

The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.

― Carl Jung

Everyone you meet knows something you don't know but need to know. Learn from them.

― Carl Jung

Conflict exists strictly as an opportunity to raise our consciousness.

― Carl Jung

Nothing is possible without love … For love puts one in a mood to risk everything.

― Carl Jung

Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.

― Carl Jung

...anyone who attempts to do both, to adjust to his group and at the same time pursue his individual goal, becomes neurotic.

― Carl Jung

Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not. 

― Carl Jung

To ask the right question is already half the solution of a problem.

― Carl Jung

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.

― Carl Jung

-The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.

― Carl Jung

We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.

― Carl Jung

You always become the thing you fight the most.

― Carl Jung

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

― Carl Jung

The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.

― Carl Jung

Where wisdom reigns, there is no conflict between thinking and feeling.

― Carl Jung

A man likes to believe that he is the master of his soul. But as long as he is unable to control his moods and emotions, or to be conscious of the myriad secret ways in which unconscious factors insinuate themselves into his arrangements and decisions, he is certainly not his own master.

― Carl Jung

To be normal is the ultimate aim of the unsuccessful.

― Carl Jung

If a man knows more than others, he becomes lonely.

― Carl Jung

Find out what a person fears most and that is where he will develop next.

― Carl Jung

Every human life contains a potential, if that potential is not fulfilled, then that life was wasted...

― Carl Jung

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

― Carl Jung

How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.

― C.G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul

We don't get wounded alone and we don't heal alone.

― Carl Jung

One is always in the dark about one's own personality. One needs others to get to know oneself.

― Carl Jung

Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.

― Carl Jung

I cannot prove to you that God exists, but my work has proved empirically that the pattern of God exists in every man and that this pattern in the individual has at its disposal the greatest transforming energies of which life is capable. Find this pattern in your own individual self and life is transformed.

― Carl Jung

Shame is a soul eating emotion.

― Carl Jung

If our religion is based on salvation, our chief emotions will be fear and trembling. If our religion is based on wonder, our chief emotion will be gratitude.

― Carl Jung

We don't so much solve our problems as we outgrow them. We add capacities and experiences that eventually make us bigger than the problems.

― Carl Jung

What you resist persist.

― Carl Jung

It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going.

― Carl Jung

The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others.

― Carl Jung

To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is.

― Carl Jung

The reason for evil in the world is that people are not able to tell their stories.

― Carl Jung

Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.

― Carl Jung

Deep down, below the surface of the average man's conscience, he hears a voice whispering, "There is something not right," no matter how much his rightness is supported by public opinion or moral code.

― Carl Jung

In each of us is another whom we do not know. He speaks to us in dreams and tells us how differently he sees us from the way we see ourselves.

― Carl Jung

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool

― Carl Jung

The greater the contrast, the greater the potential. Great energy only comes from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.

― Carl Jung

When you are up against a wall, put down roots like a tree, until clarity comes from deeper sources to see over that wall and grow.

― Carl Jung

If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.

― Carl Jung