Abraham Maslow
Cues
Showing 4 of 4 cues
“We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments ... We enjoy and even thrill to the godlike possibilities we see in ourselves ... And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities.”
“Self-actualizing does not mean a transcendence of all human problems. Conflict, anxiety, frustration, sadness, hurt, and guilt can all be found in healthy human beings.”
If not you, then who else?
Maslow asked students who would write a great novel or become a great composer; when they squirmed he asked: If not you, then who else?
Inside-versus-outside comparison error
We compare our intimate knowledge of our own weakness and vacillation with the faultless public image of great figures, and feel presumptuous. The great felt the same doubts but overrode them.