Irvin D. Yalom Quotes about Death

It's not easy to live every moment wholly aware of death. It's like trying to stare the sun in the face: you can stand only so much of it. Because we cannot live frozen in fear, we generate methods to soften death's

It's not easy to live every moment wholly aware of death. It's like trying to stare the sun in the face: you can stand only so much of it. Because we cannot live frozen in fear, we generate methods to soften death's terror. We project ourselves into the future through our children; we grow rich, famous, ever larger; we develop compulsive protective rituals; or we embrace an impregnable belief in an ultimate rescuer.

Irvin D. Yalom

Death, Children, Trying

Irvin D. Yalom (2010). “Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death”, p.17, John Wiley & Sons

Death loses its terror if one dies when one has consummated one's life!

Irvin D. Yalom

Death, Terror, Dies

Death, however, does itch. It itches all the time. It is always with us, scratching at some inner door. Mirroring, softly, barely audibly, just under the membrane of consciousness. Hidden in disguise, leaking out in a variety of symptoms. It is the wellspring of many of our worries, stresses, and conflicts.

Irvin D. Yalom

Death, Stress, Doors

Despite the staunchest, most venerable defenses, we can never completely subdue death anxiety: it is always there, lurking in some hidden ravine of the mind.

Irvin D. Yalom

Death, Anxiety, Mind

Irvin D. Yalom (2010). “Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death”, p.17, John Wiley & Sons

I feel strongly, because a man who will himself die one day in the not to distant future and, also, as a psychiatrist who spent decades dealing with death anxiety, that confronting death allows us, not to open some noisome, Pandora's box, but to re-enter life in a richer, more compassionate manner.

Irvin D. Yalom

Death, Men, Anxiety

Irvin D. Yalom Quotes about Death

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