We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under conditions of great courage. We enjoy and even thrill to godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities. Abraham H. Maslow
About This Quote

By the time we get to our early twenties, we know what kind of person we want to become. Then, about six years later, it happens. We get hit by an unexpected negative event. We lose our job, our girlfriend, our dog, or get hit by a bus.

And then something remarkable begins to happen. Our life falls into place itself and we start to discover who that person is that we were always destined to be. The one thing that happens when people are hit by adversity is that they start becoming the person they always wanted to be.

No matter what goes wrong in their lives, they begin actually living their lives instead of simply existing in them.

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  1. We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.
  2. I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.
  3. What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.
  4. The question of desirable grief and pain or the necessity for it must also be faced. [Are] growth and self-fulfillment possible at all without pain and grief and sorrow and turmoil? If grief and pain are sometimes necessary for growth of the person, then we...
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