Quotes by Irvin D. Yalom

About Irvin D. Yalom:

Irvin David Yalom is an American existential psychiatrist who is emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, as well as author of both fiction and nonfiction.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

To the extent that one is responsible for one's life, one is alone.

Irvin D. Yalom

The freedom of an unscheduled afternoon brought confusion rather than joy. Julius had always been focused. When he was not seeing patients, other important projects and activities-writing, teaching, tennis, research-clamored for his attention. But to...

Irvin D. Yalom

Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life. This is what makes us human. But it comes with a costly price: the wound of mortality. Our existence is forever shadowed by the knowledge that we will grow, blossom, and, inevitably, d...

Irvin D. Yalom

Sterven is echter de eenzaamste gebeurtenis van het leven. We worden er niet alleen door van anderen afgescheiden, maar daarnaast stelt het ons ook bloot aan een nog angstaanjagender vorm van eenzaamheid: het is een scheiding van de wereld zelf.

Irvin D. Yalom

The creative members of an orthodoxy, any orthodoxy, ultimately outgrow their disciplines.

Irvin D. Yalom

I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.

Irvin D. Yalom

Translation error is compounded by bias error. We distort others by forcing into them our preferred ideas and gestalts, a process Proust beautifully describes: We pack the physical outline of the creature we see with all the ideas we already formed a...

Irvin D. Yalom

Some day soon, perhaps in forty years, there will be no one alive who has ever known me. That's when I will be truly dead - when I exist in no one's memory. I thought a lot about how someone very old is the last living individual to have known some p...

Irvin D. Yalom

Spinoza was the supreme rationalist. He saw an endless stream of causality in the world. For him there is no such entity as will or will power. Nothing happens capriciously. Everything is caused by something prior, and the more we devote ourselves to...

Irvin D. Yalom

If I'm among men who don't agree at all with my nature, I will hardly be able to accommodate myself to them without greatly changing myself. A free man who lives among the ignorant strives as far as he can to avoid their favors. A free man acts hones...

Irvin D. Yalom

Psychiatry is a strange field because, unlike any other field of medicine, you never really finish. Your greatest instrument is you, yourself, and the work of self-understanding is endless. I'm still learning.

Irvin D. Yalom

You will search the world over and not find a nonsuperstitious community. As long as there is ignorance, there will be adherence to superstition. Dispelling ignorance is the only solution. That is why I teach.

Irvin D. Yalom

It is wrong to bear children out of need, wrong to use a child to alleviate loneliness, wrong to provide purpose in life by reproducing another copy of oneself. It is wrong also to seek immortality by spewing one's germ into the future as though sper...

Irvin D. Yalom

The spirit of a man is constructed out of his choices.

Irvin D. Yalom

Life is a spark between two identical voids, the darkness before birth and the one after death.

Irvin D. Yalom

Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you'll always find despair.

Irvin D. Yalom

Aynayı bıraktı. Kırk iki yıl kalmıştı! Kırk iki yıl daha nasıl dayanacaktı? Kırk iki yıl daha yılların geçmesini bekleyecekti. Kırk iki yıl daha yaşlanan gözlerine bakacaktı. Zaman hapishanesinden kaçmanın bir yolu yok muydu? ...

Irvin D. Yalom

Soru buydu. Onda aradığım neydi? Bende eksik olan neydi ? İyi bir yaşamım yok muydu? Yaşamımın giderek geri dönülmez bir biçimde daralan bir dehlize dönüşmekte olduğunu kime anlatabilirim? Çektiğim işkenceyi, uykusuz gecelerimi, in...

Irvin D. Yalom

Sombres, dites-vous? Mais posez-vous la question docteur : pourquoi tous les grands philosophes sont-ils sombres? Demandez-vous qui sont les gens satisfaits, rassurés et éternellement joyeux! Laissez-moi vous donner la réponse : ― la populace et...

Irvin D. Yalom

Hepimiz bazen birbirleriyle o kadar yakınlaşırız ki dostluğumuzu ya da kardeşliğimizi hiçbir şey engellemiyormuş gibi görünür, bizi ayıran küçücük bir köprü vardır, hepsi o kadar. Ama tam sen bu köprüye adım atacakken sana şu...

Irvin D. Yalom

Author Bio

  • NameIrvin D. Yalom
  • DescriptionAmerican psychotherapist
  • BornJune 13, 1931
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Psychiatrist