Quotes by James Hillman

About James Hillman:

James Hillman was an American psychologist. He studied at, and then guided studies for, the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. He founded a movement toward archetypal psychology and retired into private practice, writing and traveling to lecture, until his death at his home in Connecticut.
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

All we can do when we think of kids today is think of more hours of school, earlier age at the computer, and curfews. Who would want to grow up in that world?

James Hillman

...you find your genius by looking in the mirror of your life. Your visible image shows your inner truth, so when you're estimating others, what you see is what you get. It therefore becomes critically important to see generously, or you will get onl...

James Hillman

Fatalism accounts for life as a whole. Whatever happens can be fit within the large generality of individuation, or my journey, or growth. Fatalism comforts, for it raises no questions. There's no need to examine just how events fit in.

James Hillman

To hope for nothing, to expect nothing, to demand nothing. This is analytical despair.

James Hillman

When they talk about family values, it's in a repressive way, as if our American tradition were only the Puritan tradition or the 19th century oppressive tradition. The Christian tradition.

James Hillman

Depression opens the door to beauty of some kind.

James Hillman

The older people that one admires seem to be fearless. They go right out into the world. It's astounding. Maybe they can't see or they can't hear, but they walk out into the street and take life as it comes. They're models of courage, in a strange wa...

James Hillman

I don't think anything changes until ideas change. The usual American viewpoint is to believe that something is wrong with the person.

James Hillman

We can't change anything until we get some fresh ideas, until we begin to see things differently.

James Hillman

Loss means losing what was We want to change but we don't want to lose. Without time for loss, we don't have time for soul.

James Hillman

Just stop for a minute and you'll realize you're happy just being. I think it's the pursuit that screws up happiness. If we drop the pursuit, it's right here.

James Hillman

I see happiness as a by-product. I don't think you can pursue happiness. I think that phrase is one of the very few mistakes the Founding Fathers made.

James Hillman

In the history of the treatment of depression, there was the dunking stool, purging of the bowels of black bile, hoses, attempts to shock the patient. All of these represent hatred or aggression towards what depression represents in the patient.

James Hillman

We approach people the same way we approach our cars. We take the poor kid to a doctor and ask, What's wrong with him, how much will it cost, and when can I pick him up?

James Hillman

The culture is going into a psychological depression. We are concerned about our place in the world, about being competitive: Will my children have as much as I have? Will I ever own my own home? How can I pay for a new car? Are immigrants taking awa...

James Hillman

My suggestion is that there's no way out of the human condition. Sex, death, marriage, children, parents, illness. There's no way out. They're a misery, all of them.

James Hillman

Everything that everyone is afraid of has already happened: The fragility of capitalism, which we don't want to admit; the loss of the empire of the United States; and American exceptionalism. In fact, American exceptionalism is that we are exception...

James Hillman

The elder who is eliminating what time has done to the face, what life has done to the face, is making a statement for others to see: This is the way to be a good old person - it is to defeat this body that is doing things to you. Because you haven't...

James Hillman

Fear is a huge thing for older people.

James Hillman

I think we're miserable partly because we have only one god, and that's economics.

James Hillman

Author Bio

  • NameJames Hillman
  • DescriptionAmerican psychologist
  • BornApril 12, 1926
  • DiedOctober 27, 2011
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Psychologist; Author