Great Throughts Treasury

"Raising the self-esteem of the minority groups is one of the most strategic means for the improvement of inter-group relations."

"If you want to truly understand something, try to change it."

"Social action, just like physical action, is steered by perception."

"The American cultural ideal of the self-made man, of everyone standing on his own feet, is as tragic a picture as the initiative – destroying dependence on a benevolent despot. We all need each other. This type of interdependence is the greatest challenge to the maturity of individual and group functioning."

"Our behavior is purposeful; we live in a psychological reality or life space that includes not only those parts of our physical and social environment to us but also imagined states that do not currently exist."

"Learning is more effective when it is an active rather than a passive process."

"Experience alone does not create knowledge."

"A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration."