40 Abraham Maslow Quotes On Hierarchy Of Needs & More

40 Abraham Maslow Quotes On Hierarchy Of Needs & More

Last updated on January 4th, 2024 at 11:22 am

Abraham Maslow” by “Corbis, NTB scanpix“, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Abraham Maslow was a psychologist and the pioneer of humanistic psychology. He believed in people’s inherent goodness and was fascinated by subjects such as peak experiences, positivism, and human potential. Perhaps most known for his distinctive concept of ‘hierarchy of needs’. According to his hierarchy of needs theory, people have basic requirements that must be addressed before pursuing greater social, emotional, and self-actualisation needs.

Maslow also published several popular writings in addition to his work as a teacher and scholar, including Toward A Psychology Of Being, Motivation and Personality, etc. Here are interesting Abraham Maslow quotes that explain his school of thought:

Abraham Maslow Quotes

“When people appear to be something other than good and decent, it is only because they are reacting to stress, pain, or the deprivation of basic human needs such as security, love, and self-esteem.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING, 1968

“Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important nonevil generators of human evil, tragedy, and suffering.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: MOTIVATION AND PERSONALITY, 1954

“It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: MOTIVATION AND PERSONALITY, 1954

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SCIENCE: A RECONNAISSANCE, 1966

“Self-actualizing people have a deep feeling of identification, sympathy, and affection for human beings in general. They feel kinship and connection as if all people were members of a single family.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: MOTIVATION AND PERSONALITY, 1954
“Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization.”

“I may say that (being) love, in a profound but testable sense, creates the partner. It gives him a self-image, it gives him self-acceptance, a feeling of love-worthiness, all of which permit him to grow. It is a real question whether the full development of the human being is possible without it.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING, 1968

“Expression and communication in the peak–experiences tend often to become poetic, mythical, and rhapsodic as if this were the natural kind of language to express such states of being.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING, 1968

“The fact is that people are good. Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.” 

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“All the evidence that we have indicates that it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being, and certainly in almost every newborn baby, that there is an active will toward health, an impulse towards growth, or towards the actualization.” 

ABRAHAM MASLOW
“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”

“If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“Self-actualized people…live more in the real world of nature than in the man-made mass of concepts, abstractions, expectations, beliefs and stereotypes that most people confuse with the world.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“Most people experience both tragedy and joy in varying proportions. Any philosophy which leaves out either cannot be considered to be comprehensive.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“Not allowing people to go through their pain, and protecting them from it, may turn out to be a kind of over-protection, which in turn implies a certain lack of respect for the integrity and the intrinsic nature and the future development of the individual.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING, 1968
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

“Be independent of the good opinion of other people.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.” 

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“False optimism sooner or later means disillusionment, anger and hopelessness.” 

ABRAHAM MASLOW
SOURCE: TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING, 1968

“One cannot choose wisely for a life unless he dares to listen to himself, his own self, at each moment of his life.” 

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“If the essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, he gets sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
“We must understand love; we must be able to teach it, to create it, to predict it, or else the world is lost to hostility and to suspicion.”

“Expression and communication in the peak experiences tend often to become poetic, mythical, and rhapsodic, as if this were the natural kind of language to express such states of being.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“Behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“The great lesson from the true mystics is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, and in one’s backyard.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
“I have learned the novice can often see things that the expert overlooks. All that is necessary is not to be afraid of making mistakes, or of appearing naïve.”

Religion becomes a state of mind achievable in almost any activity of life, if this activity is raised to a suitable level of perfection.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“It isn’t normal to know what we want. It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW
“If the essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, he gets sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later.”

“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.”

ABRAHAM MASLOW

Man is a perpetually wanting animal. Also no need or drive can be treated as if it were isolated or discrete; every drive is related to the state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of other drives.

ABRAHAM MASLOW

“Seeing is better than being blind, even when seeing hurts.

ABRAHAM MASLOW

Essentially, according to Abraham Maslow quotes, there is no greater delight in life than meeting basic human needs. Evidently, he writes that you can do anything you set your mind to when you embrace your worth. When people understand their life’s purpose and dreams, they transform as a person; their consciousness, functioning, and perspective expand significantly. Thus, through his humanistic point of view, Maslow made numerous significant contributions to psychology and is acknowledged as one of the twentieth century’s most prominent psychologists.

If you liked reading these Abraham Maslow quotes then you should also check out these 40 George Carlin Quotes On Pride, American Dream, Religion & More!

Nitesh Kuchhal, an IIM Calcutta graduate, is more than an educator—he's a mentor. With a passion for leadership and entrepreneurship, and travel. He has explored over 20 countries. Beyond teaching, he dives into psychology and discusses social issues. Though he is not a history expert, he enjoys learning about it through books, adding a historical touch to his many interests.

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