The transfiguration of matter occurs through wonder. James Hillman More Quotes by James Hillman More Quotes From James Hillman It's a terrible cruelty of predatory capitalism: both parents now have to work. A family has to have two incomes in order to buy the things that are desirable in our culture. So the degradation of motherhood - the sense that motherhood isn't itself a calling - also arises from economic pressure. James Hillman motherhoodtwoorder Yes, there's genetics. Yes, there are chromosomes. Yes, there's biology. Yes, there are environment, sociology, parenting, economics, class, and all of that. But there is something else, as well. James Hillman biologyenvironmentclass I think we're miserable partly because we have only one god, and that's economics. James Hillman economicsmiserablethinking The capacity for people to kid themselves is huge. Living on illusions or delusions, and the re-establishing of these illusions or delusions requires a big effort to keep them from being seen through. But a very old idea is at work behind our current state of affairs: enantiodromia, or the Greek notion of things turning into their opposite. James Hillman oppositeskidsideas Just stop for a minute and you'll realize you're happy just being. James Hillman just-beingrealizingminutes Too many people have been analyzing their pasts, their childhoods, their memories, their parents, and realizing that it doesn't do anything-or that it doesn't do enough. James Hillman memoriespeoplepast Rather let us imagine the anima mundi as that particular soul-spark, that seminal image, which offers itself through each thing in its visible form. Then anima mundi indicates the animated possibilities presented by each new event as it is, its sensuous presentation as a face bespeaking its interior image - in short, its availability to imagination, its presence as psychic reality. Not only animals and plants ensouled as in the Romantic vision, but soul is given with each thing, God-given things of nature and man-made things of the street. James Hillman animalmenreality Attention is the cardinal psychological virtue. On it depends perhaps the other cardinal virtues, for there can hardly be faith nor hope nor love for anything unless it first receives attention. James Hillman virtueattentionfirsts I am not caused by my history-my parents, my childhood and development. These are mirrors in which I may catch glimpses of my image. James Hillman childhoodmirrorsfather Anything you attend to carefully can bring blessing. James Hillman blessing ...you find your genius by looking in the mirror of your life. Your visible image shows your inner truth, so when you're estimating others, what you see is what you get. It therefore becomes critically important to see generously, or you will get only what you see; to see sharply, so that you discern the mix of traits rather than a generalized lump; and to see deeply into dark shadows, or else you will be deceived. James Hillman shadowmirrorsdark The self divided is precisely where the self is authentically located. . . We all have identity crises because a single identity is a delusion of the monotheistic mind. . . Authenticity is in the illusion, playing it, seeing through it from within as we play it, like an actor who sees through his mask and can only see in this way. James Hillman selfmindplay The psyche is highly flammable material. So we are always wrapping things in asbestos, keeping our images and fantasies at arm's length because they are so full of love James Hillman asbestosfantasyarms Each morning, we return from the dream soul trying to adjust to the day world, that moment when the two souls exchange places in the driver’s seat. James Hillman dreammorningtwo Suppose that throughout your childhood you were good with numbers. Other kids used to copy your homework. You figured store discounts faster than your parents. People came to you for help with such things. So you took accounting and eventually became a tax auditor for the IRS. What an embarrassing job, right? You feel you should be writing poetry or doing aviation mechanics or whatever. But then you realize that tax collecting can be a calling too. James Hillman writingjobskids The character truest to itself becomes eccentric rather than immovably centered, as Emerson defined the noble character of the hero. At the edge, the certainty of borders gives way. We are more subject to invasions, less able to mobilize defenses, less sure of who we really are, even as we may be perceived by others as a person of character. The dislocation of self from center to indefinite edge merges us more with the world, so that we can feel blest by everything. James Hillman heroblessingcharacter Character forms a life regardless of how obscurely that life is lived and how little light falls on it from the stars. James Hillman starscharacterfall I can no longer be sure whether the psyche is in me or whether I'm in the psyche. James Hillman i-can To hope for nothing, to expect nothing, to demand nothing. This is analytical despair. James Hillman expect-nothingdespairdemand If there were a god of New York, it would be the Greek's Hermes, the Roman's Mercury. He embodies New York qualities: the quick exchange, the fastness of language and style, craftiness, the mixing of people and crossing of borders, imagination. James Hillman imaginationnew-yorkpeople
