Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions
Neel Burton
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Depression is our way of telling ourselves that something is seriously wrong and needs working through and changing.”
“Loneliness is the manifestation of the conflict between our desire for meaning and the absence of objective meaning from the universe.”
“Now, it so happens that our culture—or lack of it, for our culture is in a state of flux and crisis—places a high value on materialism, and, by extension, greed. Our culture’s emphasis on greed is such that people have become immune to satisfaction. Having acquired one thing, they are immediately ready to desire the next thing that might suggest itself. Today, the object of desire is no longer satisfaction, but desire itself.”
“Solitude, the joy of being alone, stems from, as well as promotes, a state of maturity and inner richness.”
“the emotions are utterly neglected by our system of education, leading to millions of mis-lived lives.”
“True humility derives from a proper perspective of our human condition: one among billions on a small planet among billions, like a fungus on a tiny fragment of cheese. Of course, it is nearly impossible for human beings to remain this objective for very long, but truly humble people are nonetheless far more conscious of the insignificance of their true relations, an insignificance that verges on non-existence. A speck of dust does not think itself more superior or inferior than another, nor does it concern itself for what other specks of dust might or might not think. Enthralled by the miracle of existence, the truly humble person lives not for herself or her image, but for life itself, in a condition of pure peace and pleasure.”
“The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n. — Milton, Paradise Lost”
“Poor feeling hijacks thinking for self-deception: to hide harsh truths, avoid action, evade responsibility, and, as the existentialists might put it, flee from freedom. Thus, poor feeling is a kind of moral failing, indeed, the deepest kind, and virtue principally consists in correcting and refining our emotions and the values that they reflect. To feel the right thing is to do the right thing, without any particular need for conscious thought or effort.”
“Gratitude promotes consciousness, enthusiasm, joy, empathy, and tranquillity, while protecting from anxiety, sadness, loneliness, regret, and envy, with which it is fundamentally incompatible.”
“Existential anxiety is so disturbing that most people avoid it at all costs, constructing a false reality out of goals, aspirations, habits, customs, values, culture, and religion in a bid to deceive themselves that their lives are special and meaningful and that death is distant or delusory.”
Except where otherwise noted, all rights reserved to the author(s) of this book (mentioned above). The content of this page serves solely as promotional material for the aforementioned book. If you enjoyed these quotes, you can support the author(s) by acquiring the full book from Amazon.
Book Keywords:
mental-health, desire, perspective, meaning, self-deception, materialism, loneliness, psychoanalysis, existentialism, reason, happiness, solitude, melancholy, mental-illness, satisfaction, self-knowledge, ethics, philosophy, consumerism, psychology, emotions, hope, cognition, greed, sadness, depression, capitalism, joy, subconscious, culture, emotional-intelligence
