Carl Rogers Quotes

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

 "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." ~ Carl Rogers

 "As no one else can know how we perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves." ~ Carl Rogers

 "A person cannot teach another person directly; a person can only facilitate another's learning" ~ Carl Rogers

 "People only seriously consider change when they feel accepted for exactly who they are." ~ Carl Rogers

 "The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination." ~ Carl Rogers

 "The only person who cannot be helped is that person who blames others." ~ Carl Rogers

 "What you are to be, you are now becoming." ~ Carl Rogers

 "We cannot change, we cannot move away from what we are, until we thoroughly accept what we are. Then change seems to come about almost unnoticed." ~ Carl Rogers

 "Life, at its best, is a flowing, changing process in which nothing is fixed." ~ Carl Rogers

 "Man's inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively." ~ Carl Rogers

 "Powerful is our need to be known, really known by ourselves and others, even if only for a moment." ~ Carl Rogers

 "It is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried." ~ Carl Rogers

 "The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change." ~ Carl Rogers

 "There is in every organism, at whatever level, an underlying flow of movement toward constructive fulfillment of its inherent possibilities." ~ Carl Rogers

 "Each person is an island unto himself, in a very real sense; and he can only build bridges to other islands if he is first of all willing to be himself and permitted to be himself." ~ Carl Rogers

 "The degree to which I can create relationships, which facilitate the growth of others as separate persons, is a measure of the growth I have achieved in myself." ~ Carl Rogers

 "The purpose of adult education is to help them to learn, not to teach them all you know and thus stop them from learning." ~ Carl Rogers

 "What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly." ~ Carl Rogers

 "When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic." ~ Carl Rogers

 "It is astonishing how elements that seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens, how confusions that seem irremediable turn into relatively clear flowing streams when one is heard." ~ Carl Rogers

 "The state of empathy, or being empathic, is to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person." ~ Carl Rogers

 "Loneliness is a barrier that prevents one from uniting with the inner self." ~ Carl Rogers

 "It is astonishing how elements that seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens." ~ Carl Rogers

 "No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience." ~ Carl Rogers

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

 "Neurotic behavior is quite predictable. Healthy behavior is unpredictable." ~ Carl Rogers

 "The paradigm of Western culture is that the essence of persons is dangerous; thus, they must be taught, guided, and controlled by those with superior authority." ~ Carl Rogers

 "I prize the privilege of being alone." ~ Carl Rogers

 "I was forced to stretch my thinking, to realize that sincere and honest people could believe in very divergent religious doctrines." ~ Carl Rogers