Explore Quotes by Carl Rogers

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.

What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.

Each person is an island unto himself, in a very real sense; and he can only build bridges to other islands if he is first of all willing to be himself and permitted to be himself.

I was forced to stretch my thinking, to realize that sincere and honest people could believe in very divergent religious doctrines.

It's an awful risky thing to live

I realize that if I were stable, prudent and static; I'd live in death. Therefore I accept confusion, uncertainty, fear and emotional ups and downs; because that's the price I'm willing to pay for a fluid, perplexed and exciting life.

We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.

People only seriously consider change when they feel accepted for exactly who they are.

Adults who think that children must be manipulated for their own good have developed the attitude of a controlling parent who lacks faith in himself, the child, or humanity or himself.

Experience is, for me, the highest authority.

I believe that the testing of the student's achievements in order to see if he meets some criterion held by the teacher, is directly contrary to the implications of therapy for significant learning.

The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true.

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.

In a person who is open to experience each stimulus is freely relayed through the nervous system, without being distorted by any process of defensiveness.

The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.

In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?

When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic.

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.

It is astonishing how elements that seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens.

Neurotic behavior is quite predictable. Healthy behavior is unpredictable.

Though modern Marriage is a tremendous laboratory, its members are often without preparation for the partnership function. How much agony and remorse and failure could have been avoided if there had been at least some rudimentary learning before they entered the partnership.