Alfred Adler Quotes

A simple rule in dealing with those who are hard to get along with is to remember that this person is striving to assert his superiority; and you must deal with him from that point of view.

Every pampered child becomes a hated child…. There is no greater evil than the pampering of children.

It is very obvious that we are not influenced by “facts”
but by our interpretation of the facts.

Life is just the same as learning to swim. Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!

To see with the eyes of another, to hear with the ears of another, to feel with the heart of another. For the time being, this seems to me an admissible definition of what we call social feeling.

The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder, with the truth.

Meanings are not determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to situations.

War is organized murder and torture against our brothers.

The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.

You can be healed of depression if every day you begin the first thing in the morning to consider how you will bring a real joy to someone else.

The educator must believe in the potential power of his pupil, and he must employ all his art in seeking to bring his pupil to experience this power.

What is courage? Courage is the willingness to risk failure…There is only one danger I find in life, and that, indeed, is a real one. You may take too many precautions.

My difficulties belong to me!

The test of one’s behavior pattern is their relationship to society, relationship to work and relationship to sex.

To be human means to feel inferior.

Every individual acts and suffers in accordance with his peculiar teleology, which has all the inevitability of fate, so long as he does not understand it.

Death is really a great blessing for humanity, without it there could be no real progress. People who lived for ever would not only hamper and discourage the young, but they would themselves lack sufficient stimulus to be creative.

There is no such thing as talent. There is pressure.

War is not the continuation of politics with different means, it is the greatest mass-crime perpetrated on the community of man.

God who is eternally complete, who directs the stars, who is the master of fates, who elevates man from his lowliness to Himself, who speaks from the cosmos to every single human soul, is the most brilliant manifestation of the goal of perfection.

Every therapeutic cure, and still more, any awkward attempt to show the patient the truth, tears him from the cradle of his freedom from responsibility and must therefore reckon with the most vehement resistance.

Exaggerated sensitiveness is an expression of the feeling of inferiority.

It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.

Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy.

Everything can always be different!

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.

Man knows much more than he understands.

No experience is a cause of success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences, so-called trauma – but we make out of them just what suits our purposes.

To all those who walk the path of human cooperation war must appear loathsome and inhuman.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

We cannot say that if a child is badly nourished he will become a criminal. We must see what conclusion the child has drawn.

Play is a child’s work and this is not a trivial pursuit.

The neurotic is nailed to the cross of his fiction.

The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.

Follow your heart but take your brain with you.

In the investigation of a neurotic style of life, we must always suspect an opponent, and note who suffers most because of the patient’s condition. Usually this is a member of the family.

It is well known that those who do not trust themselves never trust others.

It is one of the most effective attitudes of the neurotic to measure thumbs down, so to speak, a real person by an ideal, since in doing so he can depreciate him as much as he wishes.

Overcoming difficulties leads to courage, self-respect, and knowing yourself.

Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.

The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.