8th January: Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers was born on this date in 1902. He's known for person-centred counselling. Here are some things he said:

1. The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.
2. The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
3. When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic.
4. The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true.
5. People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, "Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner." I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.
6. The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change
7. What is most personal is most universal.
8. I'm not perfect... But I'm enough.
9. True empathy is always free of any evaluative or diagnostic quality. This comes across to the recipient with some surprise. "If I am not being judged, perhaps I am not so evil or abnormal as I have thought.”
10. To be what one is, is to enter fully into being a process.