Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Life Quotations

Alternatives to Materialism. I lived my life in an ivory tower, and business was to be held at an arm's length.

Find out what you like and what you hate about life. Start doing more of what you love, less of what you hate.

Control of consciousness determines the quality of life.

However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity.

It is essential to learn to enjoy life. It really does not make sense to go through the motions of existence if one does not appreciate as much of it as possible.

One of the surest ways to enrich life is to make experiences less fleeting.

Getting control of life is never easy, and sometimes it can be definitely painful.

Problems are solved only when we devote a great deal of attention to them and in a creative way...to have a good life, it is not enough to remove what is wrong with it. We also need a positive goal, otherwise why keep going? Creativity is one answer to that question - It provides one of the most exciting models for living.

When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

To live means to experience-through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience takes place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have. Over the years, the content of experience will determine the quality of life. Therefore one of the most essential decisions any of us can make is about how one's time is allocated or invested.

Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives...most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity...when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.