The 90 best Psychology phrases (and their meaning)

This discipline as such began in 1879 when the philosopher and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt founded the first experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.

• It may interest you: “80 phrases about personality, temperament and character”

Great Phrases of Psychology

Since then, the number of people who have been interested in this specialization has been enormous, and for this reason we have believed it necessary to make a selection of what are possibly the 90 best Psychology phrases of all time , which you can enjoy below.

1. To live is to be born at every moment. (Erich Fromm)

Every second that passes is ideal for growing emotionally, embarking on a new journey or starting a new project.

2. The satisfaction of the need for self-esteem leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength, capacity and sufficiency, of being useful and necessary in the world. (Abraham Maslow)

We must love ourselves greatly, because we are our greatest enemy or our best ally.

3. There is no reason why a man cannot be taught to think. (BF Skinner)

We can all learn to reason coherently, it’s just that sometimes we haven’t developed that skill effectively.

4. The ability to pause and not act on the first impulse has become crucial learning in daily life. (Daniel Golemman)

Knowing how to control our emotions and our impulses is something that we all must learn, we must reason before acting.

5. The chains and walls of the home are not clearly seen, they are almost always invisible, although no less real or insurmountable. (Luis Rojas Marcos)

The personal relationships that we live at home will mark us for life, setting our personal limits on many occasions.

6. I am convinced that an important stage of human thought will have been reached when the physiological and the psychological, the objective and the subjective, are truly united. (Ivan Pavlova)

A great appointment that invites us to delve into the human psyche in search of new discoveries.

7. A person’s mental health can be measured by their orgasmic potential. (Wilhelm Reich)

A controversial phrase but very true at the same time, because to feel pleasure we must be mentally healthy.

8. Giving produces more happiness than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because the act of giving is the expression of my vitality. (Erich Fromm)

Being generous is a quality that few possess and that is beneficial both for the individual and for society.

9. It seems that what is necessary is not to fear mistakes, to do the best one can and wait to learn enough to correct oneself in time. (Abraham Maslow)

Without a doubt, Maslow is absolutely right in this quote, because man always learns from his mistakes.

10. People are not evil, they are miserable. (Abraham Maslow)

When we carry out evil acts, it is usually because we have suffered them before.

11. The pendulum of the mind swings between meaning and nonsense, not between good and evil. (CG Jung)

The human mind goes through many moods that lead us to act in certain ways depending on the context.

12. The act of disobedience, as an act of freedom, is the beginning of reason. (Erich Fromm)

When we know that we are in the power of reason, we must not let ourselves be carried away by ignorance.

13. If a person loves only one person and is indifferent to all others, his love is not love, but a symbiotic attachment or extended egoism. (Erich Fromm)

The human being is capable of loving many people throughout his life, because this feeling is unlimited.

14. The real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do. (BF Skinner)

There are certain people who seem not to reason logically, as if they only moved by impulses or instincts.

15. A person, discovering that he is loved for being as he is, not for what he pretends to be, will feel that he deserves respect and love. (Carl Rogers)

We like to feel valued for who we are, no matter what flaws we may have.

16. There are two ways to be happy in this life: one is to play the idiot and the other to be. (Sigmund Freud)

Funny phrase of the great Freud that tells us the secret of happiness.

17. The task we must set for ourselves is not to be secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity. (Erich Fromm)

We must learn to deal with our insecurity and learn to dominate it, it cannot take control of our life.

18. Psychology, unlike chemistry, algebra or literature, is a manual for your own mind. It is a guide for life. (D. Goldstein)

What we learn with psychology we can apply in our lives as much or more, as in the lives of others.

19. The first virtue of knowledge is the ability to face what is not obvious. (Jacques Lacan)

Knowing how to see further and learn to face it or even anticipate it is a sign of great knowledge on our part.

20. Much of what surrounds me is absurd, but surely we give that name to what we do not know yet. (Julio Cortazar)

Thinking that something lacks logic is an attribution that we can make when we simply do not understand how it works.

21. Weak wills translate into speeches; the strong, in acts. (G. Le Bon)

Acts are everything that words would like to be, a word is a promise and an act a reality.

22. Never think you know everything. No matter how high you value yourself, always have the courage to tell yourself: I’m ignorant. (Ivan Pavlova)

We must be aware that we do not know everything and that there is always something useful to learn.

23. We cannot assume that our judgments are a good set of solidly structured building blocks on which to base our decisions, because the judgments themselves may be flawed. (Daniel Kahnman)

Our way of seeing things may be wrong, because perhaps we are not looking from the correct perspective.

24. Although it is common sense to think that there is a common sense, the truth is rather that each person believes that their particular sense is common sense. (P. Jara)

The particular way each person has of seeing something makes us see the same fact in very different ways.

25. Secrecy, censorship, dishonesty and blocked communication threaten all basic needs. (Abraham Maslow)

Maslow speaks to us in this quote about the total lack of transparency that a society can suffer.

26. Desire is never fully satisfied. (Jacques Lacan)

The desire we feel for something can always return at another time in our lives, especially if we no longer possess that something.

27. The chances of survival would be downright slim if we could only learn from the consequences of trial and error. Children are not taught to swim, young people to drive and medical students to operate by making them discover the necessary behavior in each case from the consequences of their successes and failures. (Albert Bandura)

We must learn from the knowledge that others can transmit to us, learn from other people’s mistakes so that we never make them ourselves.

28. We have a fantastic positive capacity, but we are also capable of doing terrible things. We are capable of torturing other people, of killing them. All this is inherent to being human, it is not that some of us are good and others are bad people. (Anthony Damasius)

The capacity of the human being to do evil is very great, we are capable of performing great acts and also performing despicable acts.

29. If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat every problem like a nail. (Abraham Maslow)

A metaphor that tells us about how we solve the problems that life presents us according to the ability we have to face them.

30. Psychological health is impossible, unless the essential part of the person is fundamentally accepted, loved and respected by others and by himself. (Abraham Maslow)

Self-esteem and the environment in which we live is essential to have good psychological health.

31. Anyone who woke up behaved as he did in dreams would be taken for crazy. (Sigmund Freud)

In dreams we are able to express our true being, what we often keep in our subconscious.

32. Every human being has a unique combination of intelligence. This is the fundamental educational challenge. (Howard Gardner)

An efficient education must be adapted to the cognitive level of each individual, so that they acquire the maximum knowledge.

33. Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have enough integrity not to fear death. (Erik Erikson)

We learn to act in the same way as our parents do, because they are our greatest influence throughout our lives.

34. One is the owner of what is silent and a slave to what is spoken. (Sigmund Freud)

Talking too much can leave us in evidence in most cases, it is better not to show all our cards.

35. Psychology cannot tell people how they should live their lives. However, it can provide them with meaning for effective personal and social change. (A. Bandura)

Psychology can help us modulate our behavior so that it is better accepted by society.

36. When I look at the world I am pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic. (Carl Rogers)

People are the only ones capable of making our world a better place for all living beings that inhabit it.

37. Follow your heart but take your brain with you. (Alfred Adler)

We must know how to appreciate our emotions, but not let ourselves be carried away by them without having any control.

38. Any failure that we may suffer in life, we can turn it into a small success if we follow the right path. Keep walking. (Michelangelo Saez)

Learning from our mistakes is something we must do over and over again throughout our lives.

39. We think we think, but we rarely do with real understanding and empathy. Yet true listening is one of the most powerful forces for change that I know of. (Carl Rogers)

Knowing how to listen to those around us will help us think carefully about the knowledge they can bring us.

40. Social psychology is especially interested in the effect that the social group has in determining the experience and behavior of the individual. (George Herbert)

George Herbert tells us in this quote about social psychology and what exactly it studies.

41. Men build society and society builds men. (BF Skinner)

We are the ones who have made society what it is, and society in turn will largely determine how we act.

42. Intelligence is the ability to take and maintain a certain direction, adapt to new situations and have the ability to criticize one’s own actions. (Alfred Binet)

A good way to see what intelligence is and what it can contribute to our lives.

43. People who believe they have the power to exercise some degree of control over their lives are healthier, more effective, and more successful than those who have no faith in their ability to make changes in their lives. (Albert Bandura)

We must believe in our abilities and have faith that they will lead us to achieve our goals.

44. Life is meaningless without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we find out, the better for all of us. (E. Erikson)

We must help others and we also deserve to be helped, society needs all its members for its optimal functioning.

45. Whenever you are in a conflict with someone, there is a factor that can make the difference between damaging the relationship or strengthening it. That factor is attitude. (W.James)

The attitude we show to others will make them understand correctly what we want to convey to them.

46. ​​You can’t untie a knot without knowing how it’s done. (Aristotle)

We need to acquire a series of basic knowledge to be able to lead our lives in an orderly way.

47. Life itself is still a very effective therapist. (Karen Horney)

With the course of our lives we learn an infinity of lessons that will be imparted to us in a compulsory way.

48. When someone has offended me, I try to raise my soul very high, so that the offense does not reach it. (Rene Descartes)

We must be above those things that lack real importance, we must not get carried away by our emotions.

49. The first step of wisdom is to blame everything; the last to reconcile with everything. (G.Lichtenberg)

We tend to think that the blame for anything is always beyond us, it is a type of self-defense: hypocrisy.

50. Choose a route, not a routine. (L. Martin)

We must be honest with our claims in life and strive to achieve our goals.

51. Intense negative emotions absorb all the attention of the individual, hindering any attempt to attend to something else. (D.Goleman)

It is true that negative emotions have the power to cloud our understanding, not allowing us to think clearly enough, we must give ourselves time to calm our spirit.

52. Time does not heal everything, but it does displace the incurable from the center of attention. (L. Martin)

We can get enough distance with a problem that allows us to see it in a more external way and with greater perspective.

53. It is very likely that the best decisions are not the result of a reflection of the brain but the result of an emotion. (Edward Punset)

When making decisions, the emotional factor is very important and we have to know how to give it the fair value it should have.

54. If a captain’s highest goal was to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever. (Saint Thomas of Aquino)

We have to be brave and try to reach the highest goals possible.

55. True intelligence consists in discovering the intelligence of others. (R. Descartes)

We must know how to see in others the intelligence that they keep within themselves, not only what is evident to us.

56. The wise man does not say everything he thinks, but he always thinks everything he says. (Aristotle)

You have to think before acting, this quote from Aristotle is another way of saying this great advice.

57. The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes. (WilliamJames)

A very true quote that encourages us to be masters of our own actions and our own lives.

58. When we must make a choice and we don’t, this is already a choice. (WilliamJames)

Not choosing is also a choice, the choice not to take sides in the matter. One of the best phrases of Psychology.

59. Hope is the most indispensable virtue inherent in the condition of being alive. (Erik Erikson)

Hope is something that accompanies us throughout life, the hope of achieving everything we want and living the life we ​​have always wanted to live.

60. If we stop to think about reality, we realize that, many times, we exaggerate the relevance of adversities. (R. Santandreu)

It is true that when we see a problem from a distance, it does not seem to be as important as when it happened to us.

61. What people feel is as important as what they do. (BF Skinner)

Our feelings and emotions are of great importance in our lives, as they will lead us in many cases to make most decisions according to their opinions.

62. Unexpressed emotions never die. They are buried alive and come out later in uglier forms. (Sigmund Freud)

Emotions can surface at the least opportune moment, we must be consistent with them and meditate on them as much as necessary.

63. Realizing that our actions, feelings and behaviors are the result of our own mental images and beliefs, gives us the level that psychology has always needed for personality change. (Maxwell Maltz)

We must be consistent with our thoughts, desires or emotions. They show us the path we need to follow.

64. When the writing is good, a book becomes a mirror. The reader will find a strange familiarity and will respond accordingly. (Jen Knox)

A quote that tells us about how a writer feels when writing a book as a result of his thoughts.

65. Psychology helps to measure the probability that a goal is attainable. (Edward Thorndyke)

With psychology we learn to be realistic and identify which thoughts have a higher value in our mind.

66. We are continually faced with great opportunities that are brilliantly masked by unsolvable problems. (Margaret Mead)

Without a doubt, a great quote on Psychology by Margaret Mead that gives us one of the keys to life: improve with every mistake we make to become a better version of ourselves.

67. Every act of conscious learning requires a willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children learn so quickly before they are aware of their own importance. (Thomas Szasz)

We must have a good enough self-esteem so that our mistakes do not get through it.

68. Using psychology to satisfy our spiritual needs is to ask psychology to take care of what science does not know and does not handle. (Jorge Bucay)

We must be aware of what psychology is and how it can help us improve our lives.

69. A need can only be truly satisfied through a certain adaptation to reality. (Lev Vygotsky)

The needs that we have are carried out within the possibilities that we have.

70. Before wanting to change the child, we should want to change ourselves. (Carl Jung)

Giving a correct education to our son depends first on our own education being positive.

71. If you assume that there is no hope, then you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct towards freedom, then there are opportunities to change things. (Noam Chomski)

We must hope for the best to prepare for the worst, if we do not believe we are capable, we will never achieve it.

72. I know who you really are. Discover your talents and your purpose in life. This will lead you to do what you love and because you do things with love, you will get what you need. (Erich Fromm)

Knowing ourselves is the way to know what we want and when we want it.

73. Whoever annoys you dominates you. (Peter Jara)

Not thinking clearly will make us make mistakes that our adversary can take advantage of against us.

74. Our scars are often the opening to our best and most beautiful parts. (David Rich)

Life leads us to make mistakes from which we learn and come out with an improved version of ourselves.

75. It is unfortunate that the vast majority of human beings are born as an original being and die as a copy. (Carl Jung)

In life we ​​are influenced by the media and the people around us, leading us to imitate those stereotypes that are most successful in society.

76. The shoe that is good for one person is narrow for another: there is no recipe of life that is good for everyone. (Carl Jung)

We must live life as we want, no one has to impose their way of living it on us.

77. Education is what survives when you have forgotten what you have learned. (BF Skinner)

The basic pillars of education will be those that we will remember forever.

78. Let us teach to forgive; but let us also teach not to offend. It would be more efficient. (Joseph Engineers)

Respecting our peers is something we must always do, one never knows because of the internal battles that others go through.

79. Creative people who can’t help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, it’s like someone climbing a mountain, they are more at risk than someone who just walks along a lane in the village. (Ronald Laing)

Going deeper into psychology can change our way of thinking about certain aspects that we thought were immovable.

80. Intelligence is what you use when you don’t know what to do. (John Piaget)

When we are deprived of the ability to act immediately, we can think more clearly how to perform an action or an act.

81. Creativity requires having the courage to let go of certainties. (Erich Fromm)

To create something new we must think that what existed until now is not enough.

82. The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if any reaction occurs, both are transformed. (Carl Jung)

The chemistry that arises from two people interacting will determine the relationship they will have in the future.

83. The interpretation of the dream is the royal road to the knowledge of the unconscious. (Sigmund Freud)

Freud was a pioneer in the interpretation of dreams and how they show us part of our subconscious.

84. There is nothing more terrible than ignorance in action. Believing one thing on the basis of insufficient evidence is always a mistake, everywhere whoever it is. People who believe in absurdities will commit atrocities. (Hans Jurgen Eysenck)

Ignorance is one of the evils that most stalks humanity and its only cure is education.

85. Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that the optimistic style is the key to persistence. (Martin Seligmann)

To achieve success, the only way is to be more persevering than failure itself, only in this way will we be able to achieve it.

86. The world is in a deep crisis because we do not have an education for conscience. (Claudio Naranjo)

Education can give us very good tools, but the conscience can only learn by assimilating positive or negative values ​​as its own, and that is much more complicated.

87. Knowing your own darkness is the best method to deal with the darkness of other people. (Carl Gustaf Jung)

Knowing how to see the negative things that you keep within your own being will make it easier for you to see the negative aspects that others hide.

88. The analyst is not the one who knows, who knows is the analysand. (Jacques Lacan)

Psychoanalysis allows us to order the information that the patient offers us in a coherent way.

89. Most social acts must be understood in their context, since they lose meaning if they are isolated. (Solomon Ash)

The context where we perform an act is as important as the act itself, or even more so.

90. What are we, what is each one of us if not a combination of experiences, information, readings, imaginations? Each life is an encyclopedia, a library, a sampler of styles where everything can be continuously mixed and rearranged in every possible way. (Italo Calvin)

A beautiful quote from Italo Calvino that perfectly describes the magic of human nature.