Roberto Assagioli Quotes

We are dominated by everything with which our self is identified. We can dominate and control everything from which we disidentify ourselves. The normal mistake we all make is to identify ourselves with some content of consciousness rather than with consciousness itself. Some people get their identity from their feelings, others from their thoughts, others from their social roles. But this identification with a part of the personality destroys the freedom which comes from the experience of the pure “I”.

There is no certainty; there is only adventure.

Psychosynthesis is a method of psychological development and self realization for those who refuse to remain the slave of their own inner phantasms or of external influences, who refuse to submit passively to the play of psychological forces which is going on within them, and who are determined to become the master of their own lives.

Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.

A person who is able to be a living centre of peace in today's world and who is able to radiate that peace powerfully, ceaselessly, will be in a position to give needy mankind the benefit it lacks most and is in greatest need of.

We suffer from a repression of the sublime.

From a still wider and more comprehensive point of view, universal life itself appears to us as a struggle between multiplicity and unity - a labor and an aspiration towards union. We seem to sense that - whether we conceive it as a divine Being or as a cosmic energy - the Spirit working upon and within all creation is shaping it into order, harmony, and beauty, uniting all beings (some willing but the majority as yet blind and rebellious) with each other through links of love, achieving - slowly and silently, but powerfully and irresistibly - the Supreme Synthesis.

The will is not merely assertive, aggressive, and controlling. There is the accepting will, yielding will, the dedicated will. You might say that there is a feminine polarity to the will – the willing surrender, the joyful acceptance of the other functions of the personality.

The most important rule is to formulate, clearly and precisely, the goal to be reached, and then to retain it unswervingly in mind throughout all the stages of the execution, which are often long and complex.

Age helps one to acquire some of the perspectives necessary to create harmony among apparent contradictions.

Through its influence upon the unconscious, music can have a specific healing effect. It can help in eliminating repressions and resistances, and it can bring into the field of waking consciousness many drives, emotions and complexes which were creating difficulties in the unconscious.

Only the development of his inner powers can offset the dangers inherent in man's losing control of the tremendous natural forces at his disposal and becoming the victim of his own achievements.

We think we can – as normal people generally do – put up with a certain amount of unanalyzed unconscious material as long as it remains more or less quiet and does not interfere with normal life and normal activities When the unconscious disturbs, it has to be dealt with; if it keeps quiet, we do not make a systematic offensive against it.

It's people like that who make you realize how little you've accomplished