Life Quotes by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

One of the surest ways to enrich life is to make experiences less fleeting.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Purpose provides activation energy for living.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“no worthwhile effort in one’s life is either a success or a failure.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“To improve life one must improve the quality of experience.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

It is not the hearing that improves life, but the listening.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Getting control of life is never easy, and sometimes it can be definitely painful.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

It is essential to learn to enjoy life. It really does not make sense to go through the motions of existence if…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Other things equal, a life filled with complex flow activities is more worth living than one spent consuming passive entertainment.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Find out what you like and what you hate about life. Start doing more of what you love, less of what you…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Studying creativity is not an elite distraction, but provides one of the most exciting models for living.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Even without success, creative persons find joy in a job well done. Learning for its own sake is rewarding.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Yet, the elders said, at times the world became too predictable and the challenge began to go out of life. Without challenge,…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

There are two main strategies we can try to improve the quality of life. The first is to try making external conditions…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

When each of these three elements of vision-concern for excellence, for people and for the wider environment-are present, business is transformed from…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Why is it that, despite having achieved previously undreamed-of miracles of progress, we seem more helpless in facing life than our less…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“What is the meaning of life?” turns out to be astonishingly simple. The meaning of life is meaning: whatever it is, wherever…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

How we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depends directly on how the mind filters and interprets everyday…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Of all the virtues we can learn no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

It does not seem to be true that work necessarily needs to be unpleasant. It may always have to be hard, or…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“the life of average people, we find the other side of the glittering coin of gregariousness: the most painful events are also…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“The best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“How we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depend directly on how to the mind filters and interprets…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act,…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Stern responds to the question about what was the main obstacle he encountered in his life: I think it’s that rubbishy part…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Our jobs determine to a large extent what our lives are like. Is what you do for a living making you ill?…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“s come true. The time channeled into such a task is perceived as time subtracted from the total available for our life.…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“Strand sees his main skill as just paying attention to the textures and rhythms of life, being receptive to the multifaceted, constantly…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“In Erikson’s words: “A meaningful old age…serves the need for that integrated heritage which gives indispensable perspective on the life cycle. Strength…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“If one has failed to develop curiosity and interest in the early years, it is a good idea to acquire them now,…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“A second level of analysis for conceptualizing spirituality is in terms of personalized goals or strivings, or what Emmons and colleagues have…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Whatever the dictates of fashion, it seems that those who take the trouble to gain mastery over what happens in consciousness do…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

If we agree that the bottom line of life is happiness, not success, then it makes perfect sense to say that it…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by…

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself.

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi