35 Best Quotes from Contemporary Psychologists

Last updated on Jun 9th, 2024

35 Best Quotes from Contemporary Psychologists

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behavior that owes its rich evolution to the contributions of both iconic and modern figures.

The list below contains some of the best quotes by contemporary psychologists, from Philip Zimbardo and Alison Gopnik to Martin Seligman.

Authentic happiness derives from raising the bar for yourself, not rating yourself against others. - Martin E. P. Seligman (Authentic Happiness Book Quotes)
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Authentic happiness derives from raising the bar for yourself, not rating yourself against others.Martin E. P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness (ed. Simon and Schuster, 2004), Page 14

Stories of identity - narratives that help individuals think about and feel who they are, where they come from, and where they are headed - that constitute the single most powerful weapon in the leader's literary arsenal. - Howard Gardner Quotes
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Stories of identity – narratives that help individuals think about and feel who they are, where they come from, and where they are headed – that constitute the single most powerful weapon in the leader’s literary arsenal.Howard Gardner, Leading Minds: An Anatomy Of Leadership (ed. BasicBooks, 1995), Page 43

Music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties. - Steven Pinker Quotes
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Music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties.Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 1997), Page 534

MOST LIES succeed because no one goes through the work to figure out how to catch them. - Paul Ekman Quotes
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MOST LIES succeed because no one goes through the work to figure out how to catch them.Paul Ekman, Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage (ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 1985), Page 240

Free will and consciousness is an illusion, and the self is a complex of memes. - Susan Blackmore Quotes
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Free will and consciousness is an illusion, and the self is a complex of memes.Susan Blackmore, 'Humans Are Just Machines for Propagating Memes,' interview with Kim Zetter, www.wired.com (February 29, 2008)

The greatest gift that you can give to others and to yourself is time. Embrace the gift of time whether you give it or receive it. - Philip Zimbardo Quotes
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The greatest gift that you can give to others and to yourself is time. Embrace the gift of time whether you give it or receive it.Philip Zimbardo, The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life, (ed. Simon and Schuster, 2008), Page 264

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However much we champion freedom of thought, we actually spend much of our time censoring input. We seek out publications that mirror or support our prior views and largely avoid those that don’t.Robert Trivers, The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life (ed. Basic Books, 2011), Page 140

Passion is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade. Intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually still. - Robert Sternberg Quotes
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Passion is the quickest to develop, and the quickest to fade. Intimacy develops more slowly, and commitment more gradually still.Robert Sternberg, Patterns of Love Charted in Studies by Daniel Goleman, New York Times (September 10, 1985)

We do not love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we do them. - Richard Wiseman Quotes
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We do not love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we do them.Richard Wiseman, 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (ed. Macmillan, 2009), Page 53

Science tells us we are merely beasts, but we don't feel like that. We feel like angels trapped inside the bodies of beasts, forever craving transcendence. - Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran
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Science tells us we are merely beasts, but we don’t feel like that. We feel like angels trapped inside the bodies of beasts, forever craving transcendence.Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran, BBC Reith Lectures, quoted in The Tell-Tale Brain (ed. William Heinemann, 2011), Page 291

While an ethic of justice proceeds from the premise of equality - that everyone should be treated the same - an ethic of care rests on the premise of nonviolence - that no one should be hurt. - Carol Gilligan Quotes
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While an ethic of justice proceeds from the premise of equality – that everyone should be treated the same – an ethic of care rests on the premise of nonviolence – that no one should be hurt.Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice (ed. Harvard University Press, 1982), Page 174

Once you realize that will power is just a matter of learning how to control your attention and thoughts, you can really begin to increase it. - Walter Mischel Quotes
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Once you realize that will power is just a matter of learning how to control your attention and thoughts, you can really begin to increase it.Walter Mischel, 'Don't!,' interview with Jonah Lehrer, The New Yorker (May 18, 2009)

Memory, like liberty, is a fragile thing. - Elizabeth F. Loftus Quotes
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Memory, like liberty, is a fragile thing.Elizabeth F. Loftus, 'Memory's Future,' interview with William Calvin, www.psychologytoday.com (March 1, 2001)

Bullets are a convenient way to present the separate elements of a list. However, bullets are a bit like salt - often essential to bring out the best, but distasteful if overdone. - Stephen Kosslyn Quotes
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Bullets are a convenient way to present the separate elements of a list. However, bullets are a bit like salt – often essential to bring out the best, but distasteful if overdone.Stephen Kosslyn, Better PowerPoint (ed. Oxford University Press, 2010), Page 54

It's not that children are little scientists but that scientists are big children. - Alison Gopnik Quotes
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It’s not that children are little scientists but that scientists are big children.Alison Gopnik, The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind (ed. Perennial, 2001), Page 9

Positivity doesn't just change the contents of your mind, trading bad thoughts for good ones; it also changes the scope or boundaries of your mind. It widens the span of possibilities that you see. - Barbara L. Fredrickson Quotes
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Positivity doesn’t just change the contents of your mind, trading bad thoughts for good ones; it also changes the scope or boundaries of your mind. It widens the span of possibilities that you see.Barbara L. Fredrickson, Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the Upward Spiral That Will Change Your Life (ed. MJF Books, 2009), Page 9

A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. - Daniel Kahneman Quotes
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A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (ed. Allen Lane, 2011), Page 62

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Embarrassment is a villain to be crushed. - Robert B. Cialdini Quotes
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Embarrassment is a villain to be crushed.Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (1984), (ed. Collins, 2007), Page 138

Killing is fundamentally in our nature because over the eons of human evolution murder was so surprisingly beneficial in the intense game of reproductive competition. - David M. Buss Quotes
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Killing is fundamentally in our nature because over the eons of human evolution murder was so surprisingly beneficial in the intense game of reproductive competition.David M. Buss, 'Professor Conducted A Huge Study To Find Out Why People Kill' by Erin Fuchs, www.businessinsider.com (February 17, 2013)

Being able to "go beyond the information" given to "figure things out" is one of the few untarnishable joys of life. - Jerome S. Bruner Quotes
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Being able to “go beyond the information” given to “figure things out” is one of the few untarnishable joys of life.Jerome S. Bruner, The Culture of Education (ed. Harvard University Press, 1996), Page 129

If you've embarked on something and you find that it's not quite right for you, for goodness sake don't hesitate to change. - Brenda Milner Quotes
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If you’ve embarked on something and you find that it’s not quite right for you, for goodness sake don’t hesitate to change.Brenda Milner, Inside the Psychologist's Studio with Brenda Milner, Interviewed by Carol Travris, 24th APS Annual Convention Chicago, Illinois (May 26, 2012)

If you want to recall happy memories, act happy. - Geoffrey Beattie Quotes
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If you want to recall happy memories, act happy.Geoffrey Beattie, Get The Edge (ed. Headline Business Plus, 2011), Page 89

Self-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly spawns failure. - Albert Bandura Quotes
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Self-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly spawns failure.Albert Bandura, Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control (ed. W.H. Freeman & Co., 1997), Page 77

When you have something to say, silence is a lie. - Jordan B. Peterson Quotes
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When you have something to say, silence is a lie.Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018)

Anyone who values truth should stop worshipping reason. - Jonathan Haidt Quotes
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Anyone who values truth should stop worshipping reason.Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (ed. Pantheon Books, 2012), Page 89

If you have an effect that nobody can replicate, then your phenomenon fades away. So if you want to to have a legacy, then you jolly well better have an effect that replicates. - Susan Fiske Quotes
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If you have an effect that nobody can replicate, then your phenomenon fades away. So if you want to to have a legacy, then you jolly well better have an effect that replicates.Susan Fiske, 'We talked to the scientist at the center of a brutal firestorm in the field of psychology,' interview with Rafi Letzter, www.businessinsider.com (September 26, 2016)

The best way to reduce stress in your life is to stop screwing up. - Roy F. Baumeister Quotes
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The best way to reduce stress in your life is to stop screwing up.Roy F. Baumeister, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength (ed. Penguin Books, 2011), Page 238

Emotions are not reactions to the world; they are your constructions of the world. - Lisa Feldman Barrett Quotes
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Emotions are not reactions to the world; they are your constructions of the world.Lisa Feldman Barrett, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), Page 104

Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else. - Paul Bloom Quotes
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Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.Paul Bloom, How Pleasure Works: Why We Like What We Like (ed. Vintage, 2010), Page 86

A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe. - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes
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A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe.Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (ed. Harper & Row, 1990), Page xi

To ensure that our views are credible, our brain accepts what our eye sees. To ensure that our views are positive, our eye looks for what our brain wants. - Daniel Gilbert Quotes
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To ensure that our views are credible, our brain accepts what our eye sees. To ensure that our views are positive, our eye looks for what our brain wants.Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness (ed. A. A. Knopf, 2006), Page 171

The net effect of these emotional difficulties is that borderline individuals are the psychological equivalent of third-degree burn patient. They simply have, so to speak, no emotional skin. Even the slightest touch or movement can create immense suffering: Yet, on the other hand, life is movement. - Marsha M. Linehan Quotes
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The net effect of these emotional difficulties is that borderline individuals are the psychological equivalent of third-degree burn patient. They simply have, so to speak, no emotional skin. Even the slightest touch or movement can create immense suffering: Yet, on the other hand, life is movement.Marsha M. Linehan, Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (ed. Guilford Press, 1993), Page 69

Groups are bad for you, groups take moral individuals and they turn them into immoral idiots. - Stephen D. Reicher Quotes
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Groups are bad for you, groups take moral individuals and they turn them into immoral idiots.Stephen D. Reicher, Stephen Reicher on Crowd Psychology by Social Science Bites (February 26, 2016)

We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world. - Gabor Maté Quotes
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We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world.Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (ed. North Atlantic Books, 2010), Page 421

The three most common narcissistic snares are the aspirations to heal all, know all, and love all. - Judith Lewis Herman Quotes
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The three most common narcissistic snares are the aspirations to heal all, know all, and love all.Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery (ed. Basic Books, 1992), Page 143