James Hillman Quotes

Instead of seeing depression as a dysfunction, it is a functioning phenomenon. It stops you cold, sets you down, makes you damn miserable.
James Hillman

Depression, Down, Makes

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

History, Depression, Black

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 exceptionally backward in about fifteen different categories, from education to infrastructure.
James Hillman

Education, Everything, Different

If you are still being hurt by an event that happened to you at twelve, it is the thought that is hurting you now.
James Hillman

Hurt, Thought, Hurting

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

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

Happiness, Happy, Here

We forget that the soul has its own ancestors.
James Hillman

Forget, Soul, Ancestors

Depression opens the door to beauty of some kind.
James Hillman

Beauty, Depression, Door

It is impossible to see the angel unless you first have a notion of it.
James Hillman

Impossible, Unless, Angel

It's important to ask yourself, How am I useful to others? What do people want from me? That may very well reveal what you are here for.
James Hillman

Yourself, Important, May

I'm the result of upbringing, class, race, gender, social prejudices, and economics. So I'm a victim again. A result.
James Hillman

Again, Social, Result

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

Change, Time, Soul

Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong. If a kid is having trouble or is discouraged, the problem is not just inside the kid; it's also in the system, the society.
James Hillman

Society, Problem, Wrong

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

Change, Until, Ideas

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

Age, Today, School

As Plotinus tells us, we elected the body, the parents, the place, and the circumstances that suited the soul and that, as the myth says, belongs to its necessity.
James Hillman

Parents, Soul, Place

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

Change, Person, Wrong

Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path... this is what I must do, this is what I've got to have. This is who I am.
James Hillman

Path, Call, Seems

Whether we like it or not, men have more of the offices, more of the higher jobs, more of the seats in Congress. Men need to re-examine what their power is. We need to understand how to use it.
James Hillman

Men, Power, Understand

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

God, Miserable, Economics

The capacity for people to kid themselves is huge. Living on illusions or delusions, and the re-establishing of these illusions or delusions requires a big effort to keep them from being seen through. But a very old idea is at work behind our current state of affairs: enantiodromia, or the Greek notion of things turning into their opposite.
James Hillman

Work, Through, Living

The moment the angel enters a life it enters an environment. We are ecological from day one.
James Hillman

Life, Moment, Angel

You don't attack the grunts of Vietnam; you blame the theory behind the war. Nobody who fought in that war was at fault. It was the war itself that was at fault. It's the same thing with psychotherapy.
James Hillman

War, Blame, Same

You don't know what you're going to get into when you follow your bliss.
James Hillman

Fear is a huge thing for older people.
James Hillman

Fear, Older, Huge

Share with your Friends

Everyone likes a good quote - don't forget to share.

Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Psychologist

Born: 1926

Links

Find on Amazon: James Hillman

Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics

Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

Related Authors

Wayne Dyer
Erich Fromm
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Albert Ellis
Abraham Maslow
Virginia Satir
M. Scott Peck
B. F. Skinner
More

Get Social with BrainyQuote

BrainyQuote Desktop

BrainyQuote Mobile

Site

Quote of the Day

Social

BQ on Pinterest

Syndication

Funny Quote Feed

Love Quote Feed

Nature Quote Feed

About Us