James Hillman Quotes

James Hillman (35)

Birth:	12th April, 1926
Death:	27th October, 2011
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Lecturer, Psychologist, Writer

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Today's Anniversary - 20th June

Births

• 1905 - Lillian Florence Hellman
• 1946 - Xanana Gusmao
• 1949 - Lionel Brockman Richie Jr.
• 1878 - Arthur E. Morgan
• 1887 - Kurt Schwitters

Deaths

• 1912 - Voltairine De Cleyre
• 1965 - Bernard Baruch
• 1933 - Clara Zetkin
• 1984 - Estelle Winwood
• 1995 - Emil Cioran

• The circumstances, including my body and my parents, whom I may curse, are my soul’s own choice and I do not understand this because I have forgotten.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Soul

  Tags in Including, Forgotten, Body, Choice, Circumstance

• I don’t think anything changes until ideas change. The usual American viewpoint is to believe that something is wrong with the person.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Viewpoint, Wrong, Usual, Change

• As Plotinus tells us, we elected the body, the parents, the place, and the circumstances that suited the soul and that, as the myth says, belongs to its necessity.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Tells, Myth, Suited, Necessity, Belong

• It is impossible to see the angel unless you first have a notion of it.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Notion, Angel

• Depression opens the door to beauty of some kind.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Depression

• Instead of seeing depression as a dysfunction, it is a functioning phenomenon. It stops you cold, sets you down, makes you damn miserable.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Phenomenon, Functioning, Damn, Depression

• We carve out risk-free lives where nothing happens.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Carve, Happens, Lives

• Loss means losing what was We want to change but we don’t want to lose. Without time for loss, we don’t have time for soul.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Losing, Loss

• Just stop for a minute and you’ll realize you’re happy just being. I think it’s the pursuit that screws up happiness. If we drop the pursuit, it’s right here.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Drop, Pursuit, Screws, Happiness, Minute

• The word power has such a generally negative implication in our society. What are people talking about? Are they talking about muscles, or control?

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Implication, Talking, Control

• I think we’re miserable partly because we have only one god, and that’s economics.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Economy

  Tags in Partly, Miserable

• It’s very important for men to look downward, to the next generation.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Generation, Equidistant, Downward, Look

• Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong. If a kid is having trouble or is discouraged, the problem is not just inside the kid; it’s also in the system, the society.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Children, Society

  Tags in Psychotherapy, Discouraged, Trouble, Kid

• If you are still being hurt by an event that happened to you at twelve, it is the thought that is hurting you now.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hurt

• All we can do when we think of kids today is think of more hours of school, earlier age at the computer, and curfews. Who would want to grow up in that world?

  James Hillman

  Topics in Computer

  Tags in Earlier, Curfew, Grow Up

• You don’t attack the grunts of Vietnam; you blame the theory behind the war. Nobody who fought in that war was at fault. It was the war itself that was at fault. It’s the same thing with psychotherapy.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Fault, Theory, Grunting, Psychotherapy, Grunt, Blame

• We have to give value to authority. We have to give value to office, being in office, holding office.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Office, Holdings, Value

• Too many people have been analyzing their pasts, their childhoods, their memories, their parents, and realizing that it doesn’t do anything-or that it doesn’t do enough.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Parents, Realizing

• Whether we like it or not, men have more of the offices, more of the higher jobs, more of the seats in Congress. Men need to re-examine what their power is. We need to understand how to use it.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Power

  Tags in Congress, Examine, Offices, Seats, Understand

• We forget that the soul has its own ancestors.

  James Hillman

  Topics in Soul

  Tags in Ancestors