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Art
August 2008 
Selected Quotations from The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck
Posted on Jul 13th, 2008
by 
Alex Chua
Alex Chua
I'm re-reading this book now & here's some quotations I cannot resist sharing with you :-)
"Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."
"Life is a series of problems.
Do we want to moan about them or solve them?
Without discipline we can solve nothing."
"To be free people we must assume total responsibility for ourselves, but in doing so must possess the capacity to reject responsibility that is not truly ours. To be organized and efficient, to live wisely, we must daily delay gratification and keep an eye on the future; yet to live joyously we must also possess the capacity, when it is not destructive, to live in the present and act spontaneously."
"By attempting to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we are giving away our power to some other individual or organization. In this way, millions daily attempt to escape from freedom."
"If our lives are to be healthy and our spirits are to grow, we must be dedicated to the truth. For truth is reality. And the more clearly we see the reality of the world, the better equipped we are to deal with the world."
"Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are, and if we have decided where we want to go, we will generally know how to get there.
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.
Some stop making it by the end of adolescence. Their maps are small and sketchy their views of the world narrow and misleading.
By the end of middle age most people have given up the effort. They feel certain that their maps are complete and their compass is correct.
Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death exploring the mystery of reality, ever enlarging and refining and redefining their understanding of the world and what is true.
But the biggest problem of map making is not that we have to start from scratch, but that if our maps are to be accurate we have to continually revise them. The world itself is constantly changing.
If we are to incorporate this information, we must continually revise our maps.
Sometimes when enough new information has accumulate, we must make very major revisions. The process of making revisions, articulately major revisions, is painful, sometimes excruciatingly painful.
What we do more often than not, and usually unconsciously, is to ignore the new information.
Rather than change the map an individual may try to destroy the new reality.
Sadly, such a person may expend much more energy ultimately in defending an outmoded view of the world than would have been required to revise and correct it in the first place."
"Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death explorng the mystery of reality, revising and refining and redefining their understanding of the world and what is true."
“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
"As we negotiate the curves and corners of our lives, we must continually give up parts of ourselves. The only alternative to this giving up is not to travel at all on the journey of life.
Giving up is the most painful of human experiences.
These are major forms of giving up that are required if one is to travel very far on the journey of life."
~ M. Scott Peck
"Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."
"Life is a series of problems.
Do we want to moan about them or solve them?
Without discipline we can solve nothing."
"To be free people we must assume total responsibility for ourselves, but in doing so must possess the capacity to reject responsibility that is not truly ours. To be organized and efficient, to live wisely, we must daily delay gratification and keep an eye on the future; yet to live joyously we must also possess the capacity, when it is not destructive, to live in the present and act spontaneously."
"By attempting to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we are giving away our power to some other individual or organization. In this way, millions daily attempt to escape from freedom."
"If our lives are to be healthy and our spirits are to grow, we must be dedicated to the truth. For truth is reality. And the more clearly we see the reality of the world, the better equipped we are to deal with the world."
"Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are, and if we have decided where we want to go, we will generally know how to get there.
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.
Some stop making it by the end of adolescence. Their maps are small and sketchy their views of the world narrow and misleading.
By the end of middle age most people have given up the effort. They feel certain that their maps are complete and their compass is correct.
Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death exploring the mystery of reality, ever enlarging and refining and redefining their understanding of the world and what is true.
But the biggest problem of map making is not that we have to start from scratch, but that if our maps are to be accurate we have to continually revise them. The world itself is constantly changing.
If we are to incorporate this information, we must continually revise our maps.
Sometimes when enough new information has accumulate, we must make very major revisions. The process of making revisions, articulately major revisions, is painful, sometimes excruciatingly painful.
What we do more often than not, and usually unconsciously, is to ignore the new information.
Rather than change the map an individual may try to destroy the new reality.
Sadly, such a person may expend much more energy ultimately in defending an outmoded view of the world than would have been required to revise and correct it in the first place."
"Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death explorng the mystery of reality, revising and refining and redefining their understanding of the world and what is true."
“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
"As we negotiate the curves and corners of our lives, we must continually give up parts of ourselves. The only alternative to this giving up is not to travel at all on the journey of life.
Giving up is the most painful of human experiences.
These are major forms of giving up that are required if one is to travel very far on the journey of life."
~ M. Scott Peck
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