Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.
When goals go, meaning goes. When meaning goes, purpose goes. When purpose goes, life goes dead on our hands.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of having goals and meaning in life; without them, life can feel lifeless and empty.
In this quote, Carl Jung articulates a deep connection between goals, meaning, and purpose in life. He suggests that our aspirations and the significance we find in our actions are integral to a fulfilling existence. When we lose sight of our goals, we lose meaning, and an absence of meaning can lead to a void of purpose, ultimately resulting in a disconnection from the vitality of life itself. This reflects the psychological perspective that a purposeful life is key to spiritual and mental well-being.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to emphasize the importance of having clear goals.
More from Carl Jung
All quotes βThe majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith.
Complexes are psychic contents which are outside the control of the conscious mind. They have been split off from consciousness and lead a separate existence in the unconscious, being at all times ready to hinder or to reinforce the conscious intentions.
We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.
From the viewpoint of analytic psychology, the theatre, aside from any aesthetic value, may be considered as an institution for the treatment of the mass complex.
I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.
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And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy anymore. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after, without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done...which proves that you can be excused for just about anything if you are a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.
The longest tyranny that ever sway'd_x000D_ _x000D_ Was that wherein our ancestors betray'd_x000D_ _x000D_ Their free-born reason to the Stagirite [Aristotle],_x000D_ _x000D_ And made his torch their universal light._x000D_ _x000D_ So truth, while only one suppli'd the state,_x000D_ _x000D_ Grew scarce, and dear, and yet sophisticate.
I suspect that one of capitalism's crucial assets derives from the fact that the imagination of economists, including its critics, lags well behind its own inventiveness, the arbitrariness of its undertaking and the ruthlessness of the way in which it proceeds.
Hate, like prayer, changes the person involved in the activity, not the person the activity is aimed at.
Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.