Quotes by Carl Rogers

“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”

“What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly”

“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.”

“When I look at the world Im pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic.”

“If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.”

“I believe that the testing of the students achievements in order to see if he meets some criterion held by the teacher, is directly contrary to the implications of therapy for significant learning.”

“The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true.”

“The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.”

“In a person who is open to experience each stimulus is freely relayed through the nervous system, without being distorted by any process of defensiveness.”

“In my early professionals years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?”

“The relationship which I have found helpful is characterized by a sort of transparency on my part, in which my real feelings are evident; by an acceptance of this other person as a separate person with value in his own right; and by a deep empathic understanding which enables me to see his private world through his eyes.”

“It would not take very long to recoup our money, ... It would be a very short payback.”

“With the price of life these days, youve got to get everything for free you can.”

“Then we got another letter saying, OK, were back in the business. Then we started going back to Lubbock. But then about a week later, around the end of the year, we were notified that they were sending out contract amendments that in our case was going to change our base price for an autopsy -- we had a contract that was only two months old at the time -- that they were going to raise those contract costs over 100 percent.”

“We will also be trying to circulate copies overseas, particularly in Denmark, where people are really keen on walking.”

Real communication occurs...when we listen with understanding. What does this mean? It means to see the expressed idea and attitude from the other persons point of view, to sense how it feels to him, to achieve his frame of reference in regard to the thing he is talking about.

Hearing has consequences. When I truly hear a person and the meanings that are important to him at that moment, hearing not simply his words, but him, and when I let him know that I have heard his own private personal meanings, many things happen. There is first of all a grateful look. He feels released. He wants to tell me more about his world. He surges forth in a new sense of freedom. He becomes more open to the process of change. I have often noticed that the more deeply I hear the meanings of the person, the more there is that happens. Almost always, when a person realize he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what its like to be me.

Although the client-centered approach had its origin purely within the limits of the psychological clinic, it is proving to have implications, often of a startling nature, for very diverse fields of effort.

Growth occurs when individuals confront problems, struggle to master them, and through that struggle develop new aspects of their skills, capacities, views about life.

Life, at its best, is a flowing, changing process in which nothing is fixed.