10 Carl Jung Quotes That (If Applied) Make Life More Beautiful

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are”

Carl Jung knew that for life to be beautiful, it needed to be whole.

But for his life to be whole, he first had to accept and love all the facets of his being — the light and shadow, the conscious and unconscious, the glory and the guts, the chaos and the order.

Perhaps that’s why he said:

“Only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life”

Let’s see what else he has to say, shall we?

“The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it”

Mark Twain put it another way:

“The first half of my life I went to school. The second half of my life I got an education”

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves”

Quite simply, without others, we can’t grow.

And what a golden opportunity that is!

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become”

Ram Dass shows us how:

“Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it”

“Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event”

When I first heard this quote it hit me right between the eyes. And upon reflection, I could see it playing out in my life.

For when I felt anxious, inadequate, and small, or if I feared being judged by others, people would show up and play that role in order for me to experience it.

That’s why Carl Jung also said: “We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.”

And…

“What you resist, persists”

Both hit me between the eyes as well.

I soon realised that for me to break old patterns, I needed to thank those who were showing me areas of myself that I needed to work on and then accept myself fully for who I was.

I’m not there yet. It’s an ongoing process but I’m trying.

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart”

Greg Evans put it like this:

“Love is not what the mind thinks. Love is what the heart feels”

So, choose love.

Every time.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”

James Clear put it another way:

“You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it”

“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people”

And thus finding compassion, humility, acceptance, and love.

The trouble is:

“Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge” — Carl Jung

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are”

Yet…

“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”

The good news here is that we only ever have two choices: To be who we truly are or not to be.

Or to put it another way: To choose love or fear.

Ultimately, which we choose determines our entire reality.

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being”

He also said:

“It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how things are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it”

“I must also have a dark side if I am to be whole”

The moon can only fill up once it becomes empty. And it can only shine in all its glory once it’s gone through its darkest expression. It doesn’t berate its darkness or wish for it to be any other way (as far as we know). Instead, it sees it as just a part of the process, of the cycles of life, knowing that it too, must change like everything else.

Simply accepting that we’re not perfect human beings can lighten the burden of trying to be.

Wholeness is everything after all — the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s the light and the dark. And both make up the whole.

Closing thoughts

To close, I’d like to leave you in a rather unconventional way. I’d like to share something Hunter S. Thompson once said.

Now, I know Carl Jung and Hunter S. Thompson couldn’t be further apart but I believe they both shared a love for the glory and guts and the glamour and gore of life. And because of that, they might have more in common than you think…

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”