James Hillman quotes

We can't change anything until we get some fresh ideas, until we begin to see things differently. (James Hillman)
I can no longer be sure whether the psyche is in me or whether I'm in the psyche... View quote
James Hillman
Love alone is not enough. Without imagination, love stales into sentiment, duty, boredom. Relationships fail not because we have stopped loving but because we first stopped imagining. View quote
James Hillman
I think we're miserable partly because we have only one god, and that's economics. View quote
James Hillman
To hope for nothing, to expect nothing, to demand nothing. This is analytical despair. View quote
James Hillman
Character forms a life regardless of how obscurely that life is lived and how little light falls on it from the stars. View quote
James Hillman
Our lives are determined less by our childhood than by the traumatic way we have learned to remember our childhoods. View quote
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. View quote
James Hillman
I'm the result of upbringing, class, race, gender, social prejudices, and economics. So I'm a victim again. A result. View quote
James Hillman
We forget that the soul has its own ancestors. View quote
James Hillman
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)
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. View quote
James Hillman
Depression opens the door to beauty of some kind. View quote
James Hillman
Fear is a huge thing for older people. View quote
James Hillman
It is impossible to see the angel unless you first have a notion of it. View quote
James Hillman
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? View quote
James Hillman
If you are still being hurt by an event that happened to you at twelve, it is the thought that is hurting you now. View quote
James Hillman
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. View quote
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 away my white world? View quote
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. View quote
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 need to work on the world so it will not be so oppressive. View quote
James Hillman
The word power has such a generally negative implication in our society. What are people talking about? Are they talking about muscles, or control? View quote
James Hillman
Instead of seeing depression as a dysfunction, it is a functioning phenomenon. It stops you cold, sets you down, makes you damn miserable. View quote
James Hillman
The circumstances, including my body and my parents, whom I may curse, are my soul's own choice and I do not understand this because I have forgotten. View quote
James Hillman