Top 280 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes (2023 Update)
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201. “A person can feel pleasure without any effort, if the appropriate centers in his brain are electrically stimulated, or as a result of the chemical stimulation of drugs. But it is impossible to enjoy a tennis game, a book, or a conversation unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

202. “Power returns to the person when rewards are no longer relegated to outside forces.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

203. “If Diogenes with his lantern twenty-three centuries ago had difficulty finding an honest man, today he would have perhaps an even more troublesome time finding a happy one.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

204. “If we assume, however, that the desire to achieve optimal experience is the foremost goal of every human being, the difficulties of interpretation raised by cultural relativism become less severe. Each social system can then be evaluated in terms of how much psychic entropy it causes, measuring that disorder not with reference to the ideal order of one or another belief system, but with reference to the goals of the members of that society.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

205. “We all know individuals who can transform hopeless situations into challenges to be overcome, just through the force of their personalities. This ability to persevere despite obstacles and setbacks is the quality people most admire in others, and justly so; it is probably the most important trait not only for succeeding in life, but for enjoying it as well.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

206. “Luckily, the world is absolutely full of interesting things to do. Only lack of imagination, or lack of energy, stand in the way. Otherwise each of us could be a poet or musician, an inventor or explorer, an amateur scholar, scientist, artist, or collector.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

207. “Because optimal experience depends on the ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

208. “In knowledge-intensive business settings, where every manager has to oversee massive amounts of information as well as people, facilitating the use of psychic energy becomes a primary concern.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

209. “It is impossible for partners not to grow bored unless they work to discover new challenges in each other’s company, and learn appropriate skills for enriching the relationship. Initially.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

210. “Thus we might think of consciousness as intentionally ordered information. This.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

211. “When every aspiration is frustrated, a person still must seek a meaningful goal around which to organize the self. Then, even though that person is objectively a slave, subjectively he is free.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

212. “We create ourselves by how we invest this energy. Memories, thoughts, and feelings are all shaped by how we use it. And it is an energy under our control, to do with as we please; hence, attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

213. “This cultural hubris, or overweening presumption about what we are entitled to from a universe that is basically insensitive to human needs, generally leads to trouble. The unwarranted sense of security sooner or later results in a rude awakening. When people start believing that progress is inevitable and life easy, they may quickly lose courage and determination in the face of the first signs of adversity.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

214. “People enter Web sites hoping to be led somewhere, hoping for a payoff.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

215. “Control over consciousness cannot be institutionaliz ed. As soon as it becomes part of a set of social rules and norms, it ceases to be effective in the way it was originally intended to be.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

216. “Almost every situation we encounter in life presents possibilities for growth... But these transformations require that a person be prepared to perceive unexpected opportunities.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

217. “Unfortunately, while free time might be a necessary condition for happiness, by itself it is not sufficient to guarantee it. Learning how to use it beneficially turns out to be more difficult than expected. Nor does it seem that more of a good thing is necessarily better; as is true of so many other things, what enriches life in small quantities might impoverish it in larger doses.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

218. “One of the simplest ways to decrease the frequency of negative thoughts is by selectively moderating expectations.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

219. “The insight presumably occurs when a subconscious connection between ideas fits so well that it is forced to pop out into awareness, like a cork held underwater breaking out into the air after it is released.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

220. “The sacred books of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and the Veda are the best repositories of the ideas that mattered most to our ancestors, and to ignore them is an act of childish conceit. But it is equally naive to believe that whatever was written down in the past contains an absolute truth that lasts forever.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

221. “Without enjoyment life can be endured, and it can even be pleasant. But it can be so only precariously, depending on luck and the cooperation of the external environment. To gain personal control over the quality of experience, however, one needs to learn how to build enjoyment into what happens day in, day out.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

222. “One of the most basic delusions of our time is that home life takes care of itself naturally, and that the best strategy for dealing with it is to relax and let it take its course.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

223. “For better or for worse, at this time science is still the most trustworthy mirror of reality, and we ignore it only at our peril.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

224. “Activity and reflection should ideally complement and support each other. Action by itself is blind, reflection impotent.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

225. “Lack of true friends is often the main complaint of people confronting an emotional crisis in the second half of life.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

226. “If you’re alone with nothing to do, the quality of your experience really plummets.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

227. “The second reason creativity is so fascinating is that when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

228. “We have seen that experience depends on the way we invest psychic energy – on the structure of attention. This, in turn, is related to goals and intentions. These processes are connected to each other by the self, or the dynamic mental representation we have of the entire system of our goals. These are the pieces that must be maneuvered if we wish to improve things.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

229. “There are natives of New Guinea who spend more time looking in the jungle for the colorful feathers they use for decoration in their ritual dances than they spend looking for food. And this is by no means a rare example: art, play, and ritual probably occupy more time and energy in most cultures than work.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

230. “The gods of the Greeks were like helpless children compared to humankind today and the powers we now wield.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

231. “The record seems to suggest that a society begins to rely heavily on leisure-and especially on passive leisure-only when it has become incapable of offering meaningful productive occupation to its members.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

232. “Someone who is in harmony no matter what he does, no matter what is happening to him, knows that his psychic energy is not being wasted on doubt, regret, guilt, and fear, but is always usefully employed.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

233. “By nature, however, we are born ignorant. Therefore should we not try to learn? Some people produce more than the usual amount of androgens and therefore become excessively aggressive. Does that mean they should freely express violence? We cannot deny the facts of nature, but we should certainly try to improve on them.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

234. “As long as one strives to become a gourmet or a connoisseur of wines because it is the “in” thing to do, striving to master an externally imposed challenge, then taste may easily turn sour. But a cultivated palate provides many opportunities for flow if one approaches eating – and cooking – in a spirit of adventure and curiosity, exploring the potentials of food for the sake of the experience rather than as a showcase for one’s expertise.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

235. “Before investing great amounts of energy in a goal, it pays to raise the fundamental questions: Is this something I really want to do? Is it something I enjoy doing? Am I likely to enjoy it in the foreseeable future? Is the price that I – and others – will have to pay worth it? Will I be able to live with myself if I accomplish it?”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

236. “Over the course of human evolution, as each group of people became gradually aware of the enormity of its isolation in the cosmos and of the precariousness of its hold on survival, it developed myths and beliefs to transform the random, crushing forces of the universe into manageable, or at least understandable, patterns.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

237. “Much has been written about what makes families work. The consensus is that families that support the emotional well-being and growth of their members combine two almost opposite traits. They combine discipline with spontaneity, rules with freedom, high expectations with unstinting love.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

238. “To be distracted against one’s will is the surest sign that one is not in control.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

239. “The solution is to gradually become free of societal rewards and learn how to substitute for them rewards that are under one’s own powers.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

240. “The optimal state of inner experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy – or attention – is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

241. “If the functions of the body are left to atrophy, the quality of life becomes merely adequate, and for some even dismal. But if one takes control of what the body can do, and learns to impose order on physical sensations, entropy yields to a sense of enjoyable harmony in consciousness.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

242. “To realize the body’s potential for flow is relatively easy. It does not require special talents or great expenditures of money. Everyone can greatly improve the quality of life by exploring one or more previously ignored dimensions of physical abilities. Of.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

243. “Whatever the dictates of fashion, it seems that those who take the trouble to gain mastery over what happens in consciousness do lead a happier life.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

244. “Within the individual life span as well, each person becomes exposed with age to increasingly contradictory goals, to incompatible opportunities for action. A child’s options are usually few and coherent; with each year, they become less so. The earlier clarity that made spontaneous flow possible is obscured by a cacophony of disparate values, beliefs, choices, and behaviors. Few.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

245. “If an enterprise does not aspire to be the best of its kind, it will attract second-rate employees, and it will be soon forgotten.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

246. “Whether we are happy depends on inner harmony, not on the controls we are able to exert over the great forces of the universe.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

247. “So people take intelligence very seriously, because the mental ability we call by that name can be measured by tests; whereas few bother about how sensitive, altruistic, or helpful someone is, because as yet there is no good way to measure such qualities.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

248. “In less well-ordered families a great deal of energy is expended in constant negotiations and strife, and in the children’s attempts to protect their fragile selves from being overwhelmed by other people’s goals.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

249. “If goals are well chosen, and if we have the courage to abide by them despite opposition, we shall be so focused on the actions and events around us that we won’t have the time to be unhappy.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

250. “At certain times in history cultures have taken it for granted that a person wasn’t fully human unless he or she learned to master thoughts and feelings.”

— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi