M. Scott Peck Quotations

I define love thus: The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.

Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems ... create our courage and wisdom.

A life of total dedication to the truth also means a life of willingness to be personally challenged.

All human interactions are opportunities either to learn or to teach.

The more effort we make to appreciate and perceive reality, the larger and more accurate our maps will be. But many do not want to make this effort.

When any institution becomes large and compartmentalized, with departments and subdepartments, then the conscience of the institution will often become so fragmented and diluted as to be virtually nonexistent, and the organization becomes inherently evil.

One extends one's limits only by exceeding them.

Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others.

Consciousness is the foundation of all thinking; and thinking is the foundation of all consciousness.

Genuine love is volitional rather than emotional. The person who truely loves does so because of a decision to love. This person has made a commitment to be loving whether or not the loving feeling is present. ...Conversely, it is not only possible but necessary for a loving person to avoid acting on feelings of love.