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Colin Wilson Quotes

But the greatest human problems are not social problems, but decisions that the individual has to make alone. The most important feelings of which man is capable emphasise his separateness from other...

Colin Wilson

But the greatest human problems are not social problems, but decisions that the individual has to make alone. The most important feelings of which man is capable emphasise his separateness from other...

Tags: colin wilson, maslow, peak experience, transcendence

At this point, I must describe an important study carried out by Clare W. Graves of Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. on deterioration of work standards. Professor Graves starts from the Maslow-McGrego...

Colin Wilson

At this point, I must describe an important study carried out by Clare W. Graves of Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. on deterioration of work standards. Professor Graves starts from the Maslow-McGrego...

Tags: maslow, spiral dynamics

About Author
Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English existentialist philosopher-novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his philosophy "new existentialism" or "phenomenological existentialism", and maintained his life work was "that of a philosopher, and (his) purpose to create a new and optimistic existentialism".

Human beings have a deeply ingrained habit of passivity, which is strengthened by the relatively long period that we spend under the control of parents and schoolmasters. Moments of intensity are also...

Colin Wilson

Human beings have a deeply ingrained habit of passivity, which is strengthened by the relatively long period that we spend under the control of parents and schoolmasters. Moments of intensity are also...

Tags: maslow, peak experience

What, in fact, do we know about the peak experience? Well, to begin with, we know one thing that puts us several steps ahead of the most penetrating thinkers of the 19th century: that P.E’.s are not a...

Colin Wilson

What, in fact, do we know about the peak experience? Well, to begin with, we know one thing that puts us several steps ahead of the most penetrating thinkers of the 19th century: that P.E’.s are not a...

Tags: maslow, peak experience

The cultural problem was 'the fallacy of insignificance', and it was a philosophical form of this fallacy that had somehow landed existentialism in a cul de sac.

Colin Wilson

The cultural problem was 'the fallacy of insignificance', and it was a philosophical form of this fallacy that had somehow landed existentialism in a cul de sac.

Tags: colin wilson, existentialism

The vitality of the ordinary members of society is dependent on its Outsiders. Many Outsiders unify themselves, realize themselves as poets or saints. Others remain tragically divided and unproductive...

Colin Wilson

The vitality of the ordinary members of society is dependent on its Outsiders. Many Outsiders unify themselves, realize themselves as poets or saints. Others remain tragically divided and unproductive...

Tags: outsider

Professor A. H. Maslow, for example, has conducted a series of researches into extremely healthy people that have led him to conclude that health and optimism are far more positive principles in human...

Colin Wilson

Professor A. H. Maslow, for example, has conducted a series of researches into extremely healthy people that have led him to conclude that health and optimism are far more positive principles in human...

Tags: altered states of consciousness, colin wilson, humanistic psychology, peak experiences, transpersonal psychology

Man knows himself as body, and what he knows of spirit comes through grace. The poet would call it inspiration. But the spirit bloweth where it listeth. Man has no control over his inspiration. If a p...

Colin Wilson

Man knows himself as body, and what he knows of spirit comes through grace. The poet would call it inspiration. But the spirit bloweth where it listeth. Man has no control over his inspiration. If a p...

Tags: peak experience, sex, spirit

There can be no doubt that the chief fault we have developed, through the long course of human evolution, is a certain basic passivity. When provoked by challenges, human beings are magnificent. When...

Colin Wilson

There can be no doubt that the chief fault we have developed, through the long course of human evolution, is a certain basic passivity. When provoked by challenges, human beings are magnificent. When...

Tags: fate, luck, sartre, willpower

Simple perception then is a fallacy. Besides the conscious prejudices that we are aware of imposing on the world, there are a thousand subconscious prejudices that we assume to be actuality.

Colin Wilson

Simple perception then is a fallacy. Besides the conscious prejudices that we are aware of imposing on the world, there are a thousand subconscious prejudices that we assume to be actuality.

A young farm labourer passed me. I suddenly understood what Traherne meant when he said that men looked to him like angels. Again, it was a matter of seeing through to the inward vitality, the essence...

Colin Wilson

A young farm labourer passed me. I suddenly understood what Traherne meant when he said that men looked to him like angels. Again, it was a matter of seeing through to the inward vitality, the essence...

إنهم يعيشون ويموتون محصورين كليةً داخل أوهام لا حقيقة لها. تمامًا مثلما عاش ومات هو نفسه.

Colin Wilson

إنهم يعيشون ويموتون محصورين كليةً داخل أوهام لا حقيقة لها. تمامًا مثلما عاش ومات هو نفسه.

The nineteenth century was the Age of Romanticism; for the first time in history, man stopped thinking of himself as an animal or a slave, and saw himself as a potential god. All of the cries of revol...

Colin Wilson

The nineteenth century was the Age of Romanticism; for the first time in history, man stopped thinking of himself as an animal or a slave, and saw himself as a potential god. All of the cries of revol...

Tags: man, nineteenth century, romanticism, spirit

I love life and I want to live, to cry but cannot—I feel such a pain in my soul—a pain which frightens me. My soul is ill. My soul, not my mind. The doctors do not understand my illness.... Everybody...

Colin Wilson

I love life and I want to live, to cry but cannot—I feel such a pain in my soul—a pain which frightens me. My soul is ill. My soul, not my mind. The doctors do not understand my illness.... Everybody...

لقد انتاب الإنسان شعور منذ القرن الثامن عشر وبعد صرخة نيتشه المعروفة، بأنّه تُرِكَ وحيداً في هذا العالم الخاوي. وهو بهذا يشبه الطفل الذي استيقظ لتوه ذات صباح، ليجد من يخبره أنّ أباه قد توفي وأنّه ينبغ...

Colin Wilson

لقد انتاب الإنسان شعور منذ القرن الثامن عشر وبعد صرخة نيتشه المعروفة، بأنّه تُرِكَ وحيداً في هذا العالم الخاوي. وهو بهذا يشبه الطفل الذي استيقظ لتوه ذات صباح، ليجد من يخبره أنّ أباه قد توفي وأنّه ينبغ...

إن إرادتي الحرة ليست سوى نتيجة لوجود مثير أو دوافع من الخارج.

Colin Wilson

إن إرادتي الحرة ليست سوى نتيجة لوجود مثير أو دوافع من الخارج.

Mystics of many countries and many centuries have spoken of this memory…’ And he defines the real danger of this ‘lunar knowledge’: ‘It is perhaps well that so few believe in it, for if many did many...

Colin Wilson

Mystics of many countries and many centuries have spoken of this memory…’ And he defines the real danger of this ‘lunar knowledge’: ‘It is perhaps well that so few believe in it, for if many did many...

You've a perfect right to call me as impractical as a dormouse, and to feel I'm out of touch with life. But this is the point where we simply can't see eye to eye. We've nothing whatever in common. Do...

Colin Wilson

You've a perfect right to call me as impractical as a dormouse, and to feel I'm out of touch with life. But this is the point where we simply can't see eye to eye. We've nothing whatever in common. Do...

Tags: existentialism, meaning, phenomenological existentialism, whitehead

I’ve read Joyce and Sartre and Beckett and the rest, and every atom in me rejects what they say. They strike me as liars and fools. I don’t think they’re dishonest so much as hopelessly tired and defe...

Colin Wilson

I’ve read Joyce and Sartre and Beckett and the rest, and every atom in me rejects what they say. They strike me as liars and fools. I don’t think they’re dishonest so much as hopelessly tired and defe...

Man is not a 'fixed and limited animal whose nature is absolutely constant'. He changed drastically when he developed 'divided consciousness' to cope with complexities of civilisation, and has been ch...

Colin Wilson

Man is not a 'fixed and limited animal whose nature is absolutely constant'. He changed drastically when he developed 'divided consciousness' to cope with complexities of civilisation, and has been ch...