Six Quotes That Will Change Your Life

Let me ask you a question: Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Hmmm?

Knowing whether you are an introvert or an extrovert is helpful for understanding yourself, don’t you think? But, did you know the only reason you can describe yourself in these terms is because of the work of Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Dr. Carl Jung?

Yes, it was Carl Jung who introduced the terms “introvert” and “extrovert” into psychology. Not only that, in my opinion, no other person has done more to help people understand themselves than Carl Jung. The man was a pure genius.

Just for fun, I present to you my six favorite Jungian quotes. I believe that each of these quotes communicates a profound truth. In fact, contained in these few lines of text is the knowledge needed to change a person’s outlook on life completely. Enjoy!

Self Identity

Jung once said, “The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you.”

Know yourself. So much of Jung’s work was about helping people to know themselves. Without an anchor of ‘self’, you will get swept along in the tides of popular opinion, cultural expectation, and media influence.

Do you know who you are?

The knowledge of self gives us the impetus to say yes to what we need to say yes to, no to what we need to say no to, and to stand firm when others seek to impose their agenda on us. We can say, “That is not who I am.”

There is some truth to the axiom that I was taught growing up in the church: “You will either shape the world, or the world will shape you.”

Seeing Yourself in Others

Jung once said, “Everything that irritates us about others can lead to an understanding of ourselves.”

Have you ever noticed that often people are most outspoken about issues that they themselves struggle with — sometimes in secret?

It is true that many of the things that irritate you about another person are likely within you or within your shadow. They are often the things we are most afraid will come out of ourselves. When we see things in others that make us annoyed, we often do not realize that we are looking at a mirror into our own souls.

The question that we ought to stop and ask whenever someone offends or irritates us is, “Why?” What irritates you in others can teach you important things about yourself.

Self-Compassion

Carl Jung once said, “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people.”

When we understand our capacity for evil — or what Jung calls “Darkness” — we can have greater empathy for others. When we see the darkness in ourselves and show compassion for it, we can also show compassion to the darkness in others. We must come to understand that virtually everyone is doing the best they can with the life circumstances they have been dealt. As Maya Angelou said, “If they knew better, they’d do better.”

This quote by Jung also echoes the words of Christ: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Our Inner Shadow

Carl Jung once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.”

When Jung speaks of making the unconscious conscious, he is speaking of discovering the reasons WHY we act in certain ways and WHY we respond the way we do to certain situations.

Have you ever heard someone say, “Why do bad things keep happening to me?” as if the universe had conspired against them? You may not say it or even know it, but often people who go through the same patterns of negative emotions and experiences are living their life on autopilot, repeating the same reactions and responses over and over again in a figure 8 loop.

Only when we look beyond our behaviors into the reasons for their presence in our lives can we start changing the negative patterns and habits that keep us trapped.

Valuing Others

Carl Jung once said, “Everyone you meet knows something you don’t know but need to know. Learn from them.”

I love this quote. When you assume the person in front of you knows something you don’t know but need to know, it forces you into a position where you must value and esteem that person. It prevents us from dismissing another human being based on what we think we know about them. We miss out on so much when we pre-judge others.

Everyone is a teacher. Every voice has something of value to say.

Victim Mentality

Carl Jung once said, “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

The sad reality is that most people do believe they are what happened to them. Their level of self-worth or self-loathing is inextricably linked with their past — either their mistakes or their achievements — and, of course, how others view them in consequence.

Those who wallow in this way of thinking can become stuck in a kind of victim mentality.

But, I love this quote from Jung because it empowers us to choose who we become in spite of what may have happened to us. We are one decision away from a completely different life. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond.

The last word

Each one of these quotes is pinned to a wall somewhere in my home. Feel free to steal them, and print them out for yourself. They are not mine to give in any case.

Jung was undoubtedly one of the greatest explorers of the human mind and soul that ever lived. The genius of Carl Yung invites us to know and understand ourselves. Understanding our thoughts and behaviors and their influence on our lives exposes and prevents our false beliefs, negative emotions, and self-defeating behaviors from directing our fate.

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This post was previously published on Backyard Church.

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