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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index M > Abraham Harold Maslow Quotes

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Abraham Harold Maslow
(1 Apr 1908 - 8 Jun 1970)

American psychologist.


Science Quotes by Abraham Harold Maslow (9 quotes)

[Concerning] the usual contempt with which an orthodox analytic group treats all outsiders and strangers ... I urge you to think of the young psychoanalysts as your colleagues, collaborators and partners and not as spies, traitors and wayward children. You can never develop a science that way, only an orthodox church.
— Abraham Harold Maslow
Letter to a colleague (Nov 1960). In Colin Wilson, New Pathways in Psychology: Maslow and the Post-Freudian Revolution (1972, 2001), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Analytic (11)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Church (64)  |  Collaborator (2)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Never (1089)  |  Orthodox (4)  |  Outsider (7)  |  Partner (5)  |  Psychoanalyst (4)  |  Spy (9)  |  Stranger (16)  |  Think (1122)  |  Traitor (3)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wayward (3)  |  Young (253)

A cat finds it easy to be a cat, as nearly as we can tell. It isn’t afraid to be a cat. But being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical. While human beings love knowledge and seek it—they are curious—they also fear it. The closer to the personal it is, the more they fear
— Abraham Harold Maslow
In The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Cat (52)  |  Curious (95)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Fear (212)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Love (328)  |  Personal (75)  |  Problem (731)  |  Seek (218)

Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be.
— Abraham Harold Maslow
Toward a Psychology of Being (1962, 1999), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Thought (995)

I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.
— Abraham Harold Maslow
In The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966), 15-16. The idiom predates his use of it. Maslow recognized a cognitive bias that involves an over-reliance on a familiar tool. Thus, in his own work, he chose to give up his familiar line of questions to invent new ways of answering them.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Hammer (26)  |  Nail (8)  |  Tempt (6)  |  Tool (129)  |  Treat (38)

More than any other kind of knowledge we fear knowledge of ourselves, knowledge that might transform our self-esteem and our self-image.
— Abraham Harold Maslow
In The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Fear (212)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Ourself (21)  |  Self-Esteem (7)  |  Transform (74)

More than any other scientists we psychologists have to contend with the astonishing fact of resistance to the truth.
— Abraham Harold Maslow
In The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Astonishing (29)  |  Contend (8)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Psychologist (26)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Truth (1109)

Science can be the religion of the nonreligious, the poetry of the non-poet, the art of the man who cannot paint, the humor of the serious man, and the lovemaking of the inhibited and shy man. Not only does science begin in wonder; it also ends in wonder.
— Abraham Harold Maslow
In The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  End (603)  |  Humor (10)  |  Love (328)  |  Painting (46)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Serious (98)  |  Shy (5)  |  Wonder (251)

Since my mother is the type that’s called schizophrenogenic in the literature—she's the one who makes crazy people, crazy children—I was awfully curious to find out why I didn’t go insane.
— Abraham Harold Maslow
Quoted in Colin Wilson,New Pathways in Psychology: Maslow and the Post-Freudian Revolution (1972, 2001), 155-56.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Call (781)  |  Children (201)  |  Crazy (27)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Curious (95)  |  Find (1014)  |  Insane (9)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mother (116)  |  People (1031)  |  Type (171)  |  Why (491)

This is what nonscientists don’t know, and this is what scientists are too bashful to talk about publicly, at least until they grow old enough to be shameless. Science at its highest level is ultimately the organization of, the systematic pursuit of, and the enjoyment of wonder, awe, and mystery.
— Abraham Harold Maslow
In The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Enough (341)  |  Grow (247)  |  High (370)  |  Know (1538)  |  Least (75)  |  Level (69)  |  Nonscientist (3)  |  Old (499)  |  Organization (120)  |  Publicly (3)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Talk (108)  |  Ultimately (56)



Quotes by others about Abraham Harold Maslow (1)

Abraham Maslow, felt … [an] instinctive revolt against the “atmosphere” of Freudian psychology, with its emphasis on sickness and neurosis, and decided that he might obtain some equally interesting results if he studied extremely healthy people.
In Introduction to the New Existentialism (1966), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Equally (129)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Neurosis (9)  |  Obtain (164)  |  People (1031)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Result (700)  |  Revolt (3)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Study (701)


See also:

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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