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M. Scott Peck

92 quotes

“Almost as horrific as evil itself is the denial of it, as in the case of those who go through life wearing rose-coloured glasses.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mystery of goodness is greater than that of evil.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whenever someone is bold enough to ask me, ‘Dr. Peck, what is human nature?’ my first answer is likely to be ‘Human nature is to go to the bathroom in your pants.’ ... If there is a good relationship between the child and the parent, and if the parent is not too impatient or overcontrolling (and unfortunately, these favorable conditions are often not met, which is the major reason that we psychiatrists are so interested in toilet training), then something quite wonderful happens.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In my practice as a psychotherapist, I would routinely tell my patients, "Psychotherapy is not about happiness; it is about power. If you go the whole route here, I cannot guarantee that you will leave one jot happier. What I can guarantee you is that you will leave more competent".”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yet despite all the hype with which the candidates and the press and the networks attempt to create an entertaining spectacle out of politics, we must try to remember that politics is real. It should not be the drama of images. It is the drama of reality. Millions, billions of real lives are at stake.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“... It is common for consciousness to be treated almost as it were a common cold, contagious or potentially deadly if one spreads deep thinking too much to those in one's environment.... Being aware is often greeted with suspicion and trepidation...”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wrote of this in People of the Lie. Using My Lai as a case study, I demonstrated how evil at an institutional and group level occurs when there is a fragmentation of consciousness – and conscience.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“... We also need to become increasingly conscious to identify and relish what is good and beautiful in this life.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It can be argued that one reason many view evil as more prevalent than ever is a result of the fact that our standards have improved.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Liberation theology proclaims that Christians are called to play an active role in doing battle with the systemic sins and evils of society – called to take responsibility for liberating people from the burdens of poverty and oppression... As (Tom) Langford points out, people who focus exclusively on liberation become fanatic and glum...”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Millions of Christians smugly sit around believing that they don't have to do anything because they've been redeemed, and they thereby contribute to that public apathy that is so poisonous.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Evil is revolting because it is dangerous. It will contaminate or otherwise destroy a person who remains too long in its presence.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: The observant and thoughtful among us will have noticed that evil is by far the more common phenomenon. Genuine goodness is rare.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: There is no virtue inherent in unconstructive suffering. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning. If we can be open to learning from our pain, then we are truly growing; if we merely wallow in it, we are not.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: We live in a profoundly mysterious universe, and it is a universe in which we are constantly being called to grow.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: If masochism is as common as it seems to be, then it should not surprise us that human evil exists, or occurs.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: Since the primary characteristic of evil is laziness, and since laziness is so common, it is obvious that evil is commonplace.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: Evil is actively opposed to love. It is not laziness but militant refusal. It is anti-love.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: Evil originates in failure to acknowledge one’s own pain and sin.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: I actually think that most people are consciously evil and unconsciously good. I can kind of explain why people are consciously evil, and find it much harder to explain why they are unconsciously good.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: Evil may be thought of as a failure to complete the Oedipal process.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: The successful resolution of the Oedipal situation permits the growth of love beyond the family; failure to resolve it results in dependency, narcissism, and immaturity in one’s capacity to love.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: Evil is the complete absence of self-development. It is the refusal to undergo the suffering required for growth. Ordinary laziness is a passive failure to love. Evil, however, is an active failure to love. It is not merely a sin of omission but of commission. The evil are people who refuse to acknowledge their own failures, who instead place the burden of their sins upon others and thereby destroy others in order to preserve their own self-image of perfection. Evil originates not in the absence of guilt but in the effort to escape it.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: Evil has no depth. It is not creative. It is not even in the least bit interesting. It is boring. It is banal.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: In theological language evil is not just a defect but a real spirit of unreality. It is that which refuses to acknowledge reality, to acknowledge truth; it is, therefore, a form of unconsciousness.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: Hannah Arendt has written of the ‘banality of evil.’ She was speaking of the Nazi bureaucrats who performed their monstrous duties with the same bland efficiency as they would any other job. It is a fitting phrase. Evil is banal. It is utterly unoriginal. It is simply the absence of love.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: Many people, because they have not successfully resolved the Oedipal stage, remain emotionally children; they are afraid to grow up, afraid to risk independence, afraid to risk real love.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: We should empty ourselves of masochism not repress it. The repression of emotions causes all mental illnesses.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: We (the U.S) lost the Vietnam War and we didn't do the necessary introspective work of the natural post-war psychological depression on ourselves after the war had ended. Most U.S citizens around at the time didn't learn much from that war.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: The whole point of having a brain is to use it by thinking.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paraphrase: I find the average quality of most parenting in the U.S to be appallingly poor.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By masochism I do not mean that they (masochists) get their sexual jollies out of physical pain, but simply that in some strange way they are chronically self-destructive. Masochists are people who perpetually attempt to destroy themselves. They are always, in one way or another, trying to kill themselves. In the long run they almost always succeed. Our task in therapy is to help them empty themselves of their masochism so that life may fill them instead. The problem of masochism is intimately tied up with the problem of responsibility. Masochists are people who, because they hate themselves, believe that they are worthless and deserve only punishment. They are self-destructive because they lack the capacity to assume responsibility for their own lives. Instead of taking care of themselves, they neglect themselves, abuse themselves, and in the end destroy themselves. The genuinely disciplined person, on the other hand, is one who takes responsibility for his or her own life and well-being. Discipline is self-caring. Masochism is not. Discipline is love translated into action; masochism is love turned against the self.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the other end of the human spectrum from the saints lie the least free, the evil. All one can see of them is the mud. And it all looks the same. In Chapter 3 I offered a clinical, nosological description of the evil personality. It is extraordinary how well the evil fit the mould. Once you’ve seen one evil person, you’ve essentially seen them all. Even psychotics, whom we are accustomed to thinking of as the most seriously deranged, are more interesting. (Indeed, there is some reason to suspect that in certain cases psychosis is chosen as a preferable alternative to evil.) Then how is it that psychiatrists have until now failed to recognize such a distinct, rigid type? It is because they have brought the pretence of respectability. They have been deceived by what Harvey M. Cleckley called ‘the mask of sanity.’ As my priest friend commented, evil is ‘the ultimate disease.’ Despite their pretence of sanity, the evil are the most insane of all. It is to the incredibly dreary insanity of the Adolf Eichmanns of this world that Hannah Arendt was referring when she spoke of ‘the banality of evil.’ Thomas Merton put it this way: "One of the most disturbing facts that came out in the Eichmann trial was that a psychiatrist examined him and pronounced him perfectly sane.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The time is right, I believe, for psychiatry to recognize a distinct new type of personality disorder to encompass those I have named evil. In addition to the abrogation of responsibility that characterizes all personality disorders, this one would specifically be distinguished by: (a) consistent destructive, scapegoating behaviour, which may often be quite subtle. (b) excessive, albeit usually covert, intolerance to criticism and other forms of narcissistic injury. (c) pronounced concern with a public image and self-image of respectability, contributing to a stability of life-style but also to pretentiousness and denial of hateful feelings or vengeful motives. d) intellectual deviousness, with an increased likelihood of a mild schizophreniclike disturbance of thinking at times of stress.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By allowing ourselves to be easily and blatantly defrauded, we as a whole people participated in the evil of the Johnson administration. The evil — the years of lying and manipulation — of the Johnson administration was directly conducive to the whole atmosphere of lying and manipulation and evil that pervaded our presence in Vietnam during those years. It was in this atmosphere that My Lai occurred in March 1968. Task Force Barker was hardly even aware that it had run amok that day, but, then, America was not significantly aware either in early 1968 that it too had almost unredeemably lost its bearings.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Page 279, Arrow UK edition (1990).
“At one point I allowed myself to become involved in a project called the Peace Train. It started as a fine idea but soon began to acquire all the trappings of a cult. People were surrendering their critical judgment to the leaders and suppressing their differences for the sake of an emotional high. When I recognized what was happening, I pulled out. I had no desire to become a guru, nor to see community used as a means of control. The Peace Train itself turned out to be terribly boring. What passed for excitement was mostly posturing. I found myself dreading the meetings and relieved when it finally came to an end.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One issue where Christian theology and the New Age movement tend to part company radically concerns the issue of evil. Christian doctrine holds that evil is real. Eastern religions do not consider it to be real. They consider it to be illusion or false knowledge, what they call maya. I do not claim there is nothing to this view. There is no doubt in my mind that by thinking of evil we can create it. If we read the demonic into everything with which we disagree – as many Stage Two religious folk are prone to do – then we will cause fragmentation and hostility rather than healing. Through the New Age movement, however, the simplistic idea has spread that if we could just change our thinking, we would realise there’s no such thing as evil in the world. It would all just go away, vanish. But the reality is that there really are people out there who like to maim, to torture, and to crush other people. There are people who want war because they profit from war. And you can get into serious trouble if you believe that there aren’t. Because sooner or later you will be accosted with real evil, and dealing with it will not be as easy as some New Age books imply.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The one New Age book that has attracted the most attention, and the one that I am most often asked about, is A Course in Miracles. It is a very good book, filled with a lot of first-rate psychiatric wisdom. But A Course in Miracles also denies the reality of evil, saying that evil is unreal, a kind of figment of our imagination. This is not all that far from the truth, because evil does have a great deal to do with unreality. In fact, in my book People of the Lie, I defined Satan as ‘a real spirit of unreality’. So evil does have a great deal to do with unreality — that is, with lies and untruth. But that doesn’t mean that it in itself doesn’t exist. While A Course in Miracles purports to be Christian, it distorts Christian doctrine. It is not all the truth; rather, it is a half-truth, and in failing to deal with the problem of evil, it leaves out a major part of the picture. It runs with only one side of the ‘paradox’ of evil.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The individual with a secular consciousness essentially thinks that he is the center of the universe. Such people tend to be quite intelligent. They know full well that they are but one of six billion human beings scratching out an existence on the surface of a medium-sized planet that is a small fragment of a tiny solar system within a galaxy among countless galaxies, and that each of those other human beings also thinks that he is the center of the universe. Consequently, intelligent though they may be, people with a secular consciousness are prone to feel a bit lost within this hugeness and, despite their "centrality," to often experience a sense of meaninglessness and insignificance. The person with a sacred consciousness, on the other hand, does not think of himself as the center of the universe. For him the center resides elsewhere, specifically in God — in the Sacred. Yet despite this lack of centrality, he is actually less likely to feel himself insignificant or meaningless than the secularist is, because he sees himself existing in relationship with that Sacred Other, and it is from this relationship that he derives his meaning and significance. Sometimes people fall in between, with one foot planted in sacred consciousness and the other in secular consciousness...”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I wrote The Road Less Travelled, I never gave a definition of maturity, but I did describe in the book a number of immature people. It seems to me that what most characterizes immature people is that they sit around complaining that life does not meet their demands. On the other hand, what characterizes those relative few who are fully mature is that they see life as their responsibility — even as an opportunity to meet its demands. Indeed, when we realize that everything that happens to us has been designed to teach us what we need to know on our journey of life, we begin to see life from a totally different perspective.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The thing to remember (about masochists) is that masochists are always killing themselves.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source