David J. Lieberman Quotes

How people see the world is often a reflection of how they see themselves. If they think that the world is just a cesspool of lies and deceit, then they themselves may be full of lies and deceit. Watch out for those people who are always telling you just how corrupt the rest of the world is. As the saying goes, 'It takes one to know one.'

The fields of clinical psychology and psychiatry exist specifically to help the emotionally unstable become more stable and lead happier, healthier lives. Unlike in the eras of Vincent Van Gogh and Abraham Lincoln, there is now professional help available for those who suffer from emotional illness. Treatment may require therapy or even medication, but hope is now available every single day in practically every city in the civilized world.

Consider, for example, lust versus love. When we lust after someone or something, we think in terms of what they (or it) can do for us. When we love, however, our thoughts are immersed in what we can give to someone else. Giving makes us feel good, so we do it happily. But when we lust, we only want to take. When someone we love is in pain, we feel pain. When someone whom we lust is in pain, we only think in terms of what that loss or inconvenience means to us.

At the root of fear is low self-esteem. This explains why angry people have low self-esteem, are argumentative, stubborn, and quick to flare up yet slow to forgive. Those behaviors are defenses against the underlying fear.

Our focus is our reality. What we choose to focus on becomes our world. It produces our thoughts, values, attitudes, and beliefs.

When we rise above our temptations and resist them, we exercise self-control. And that's when we experience true freedom and emotional health.

Freedom is the crux of self-respect. It is difficult to feel good about ourselves when we are unnaturally dependent on someone or something.

Suicide is the dumbest possible way of getting revenge. Why is that? Because the people you want to strike back at are the very same folks who won't even remember you a week after you're gone, while the people you want to spare most -- the people who love you -- are the ones who will have to live with the pain of your suicide for the rest of their lives.

Whenever you are questioning a person's desire for something, consider what he does, not necessarily what he says.

Jealousy of other people's success is a sure sign that you feel unfulfilled in your own life. Seeing them enjoy the fruits of their labors is a painful reminder that you do not have what you want nor have you been actively seeking it.

When someone refuses to listen to you or others, there is one source or entity that he will listen to: Call it God, the universe, a higher power, karmic law, whatever. At any rate, if he feels that the universe is trying to tell him something, then he may listen. He won't listen to you or anyone else, but the universe, that's a different story.

True freedom is not about being able to do whatever we feel like doing; rather, it is about being able to do what we truly want to do, in spite of what we feel like doing at the moment.

The next time you make a snap judgment about a situation, take a few moments to understand an opposing viewpoint.

The guilty are uncomfortable with silence.

We can find reasons to dislike anyone. But it's what you focus on and appreciate in a person that cultivates a positive relationship.

Never ask advice from someone who has something at stake or something to lose from your decision. The more objective the person is the greater value you should place on the input.

Whenever you are dealing with someone or something of unknown value the first one who places a value on it establishes its worth.

The reason why we often get poor advice is that it's hard to find a person who always has our best interest at heart, isn't envious in any way, and at no level thinks he knows what's best for you.

Sometimes people who adamantly assert an opinion or view don't even hold it themselves.

If you know how much reality is getting in, then you know a great deal about what a person sees to be true.

When a person gives, he loves the object of his giving more -- and so love is planted and grows.

Studies show that when we vocalize an opinion, whether or not we believe it to be true, in time we usually come to support it.