Karen Horney

"What we call love is often just the meeting of two neuroses."

"The self that emerges in analysis is not discovered but created through understanding."

"We can only truly change what we first truly accept."

"The capacity to be wrong is the capacity to learn and grow."

"Our greatest wisdom lies in the integration of our contradictions."

"The fear of our own power is often what keeps us powerless."

"We are all living out narratives we inherited and never questioned."

"Real healing begins when we stop blaming others and start understanding ourselves."

"The capacity to move about freely in society will always be easiest for those who possess wealth, beauty, and youth."

"What matters is not the great man or the great act but the continuation of the work."

"Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist."

"The neurotic is nailed to the cross of his own ambitions."

"Our inner conflicts, if fully recognized, can become the source of our greatest strength."

"People can change in ways they never thought possible, if they allow themselves to be vulnerable first."

"The wish to fly is the original sin of ambition."

"In our civilization, there is far too much father and far too little mother."

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."

"Anxiety is the price we pay for awareness in an uncertain world."

"Compliments often make people uncomfortable because they must confront the gap between their self-image and others' perception."

"The more we are threatened, the more compulsive we become."

"Real freedom lies not in doing what we want, but in wanting what we ought."

"Human relationships are the most important aspect of our lives, yet we spend the least time developing the skills to nurture them."

"Conflicts within ourselves can be far more destructive than conflicts with others."

"We often create ideal pictures of ourselves that bear little resemblance to who we actually are."

"The neurotic solutions we adopt do provide a certain internal harmony, however false and temporary."

"Jealousy is not love; it is the corruption of love."

"One's own self is the most important companion one can have."

"The fear of failure is often greater than the failure itself."

"What we need is not freedom from responsibilities, but freedom to fulfill them."

"Self-improvement is much easier to preach than to practice, yet it remains the most rewarding endeavor."