The Wisdom Letter #256
5 quotes from Abraham Maslow (1908–1970)
✹ For today’s Wisdom Letter, we have carefully curated five bite-sized quotes from the American psychologist, Abraham Maslow (1908–1970), each paired with a philosophical question meant to provoke deep reflection:
Quote № 01:
“If swindling pays, then it will not stop. The definition of the good society is one in which virtue pays. I can now add a slight variation on this; you cannot have a good society unless virtue pays.”
— Abraham Maslow
~ Follow-up Question:
To what extent can a society claim to be just or moral if its structural incentives consistently reward deceit, manipulation, or exploitation, and what mechanisms might be necessary to realign societal values with ethical behavior without resorting to coercive control?
Quote № 02:
“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
~ Follow-up Question:
In what ways might the habitual use of a singular method or perspective create epistemological blind spots, and how can individuals and institutions cultivate the capacity to recognize and escape such conceptual rigidity?
Quote № 03:
“Education is learning to grow, learning what to grow toward, learning what is good and bad, learning what is desirable and undesirable, learning what to choose and what not to choose.”
— Abraham Maslow
~ Follow-up Question:
Can the process of learning what to grow toward be meaningfully universal across diverse social, cultural, and philosophical backgrounds, or must education ultimately be individualized to honor the plurality of human aspirations and moral visions?
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Quote № 04:
“If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”
— Abraham Maslow
~ Follow-up Question:
Can the pressure to become everything one is capable of being be reconciled with the unpredictability of life circumstances, and how should individuals navigate the gap between their envisioned potential and the constraints imposed by reality?
Quote № 05:
“You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.”
— Abraham Maslow
~ Follow-up Question:
To what extent can the pursuit of safety be seen not merely as a retreat from growth, but as a legitimate expression of wisdom, self-care, or prudence, and how should one ethically weigh the value of comfort against the imperative for change?
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Perhaps he should have said “…backwards into the illusion of safety”.
Thanks for these, they are great prods. Love the format, too.
As for Quote #3 about education (small e), I would say that I believe there are such things as universal beliefs. Everything does not require an individualized context. My evidence for this point of view comes from the presence in every great religion of the world of a variation on the commonly-held value of the Golden Rule. That rule is used as a guiding principle by Christians. The Golden Rule states that we should treat others as we would like to be treated. Every major religion holds this principle to be true under another name. If as diverse and sometimes conflicting sets of modus operandi as are embedded in the great religions can include this single principle, then, some learning to grow must be universal.