Boris Cyrulnik's 60 best quotes

The experiences we live mark us, both positively and negatively, since they influence the way we end up seeing the world and it has a big impact on the direction we decide take. In the case of Boris Cyrulnik, his first-hand experience with Nazism and the war helped him see the power of resilience, the same concept that has taken him far in the field of psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

Next we will explore the philosophy of life of this French author and psychiatrist through a selection of Boris Cyrulnik's best quotes, commented.

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The most inspiring Boris Cyrulnik phrases

This psychiatrist managed to transfer something so significant in his personal life to his field of work, which is an example that we can use our experiences to build a great future. That example is what we will see throughout this compilation of the most memorable Boris Cyrulnik phrases.

1. Resilience is like the oyster that makes a pearl from a grain of sand.

Resilience helps us to get the positive side of every situation.

2. Neither forget nor use: the only way to get ahead is by understanding.

When we understand a situation, we are able to accept it and let it go.

3. The chimera called "fiction" is the twin sister of the story of oneself.

Sometimes we use fictional resources to tell our own story.

4. Problems can never be solved, a trace always remains, but we can give them another life, a more bearable life and sometimes even beautiful and meaningful.

We can use our wounds to create something useful.

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5. When one is miserable, pleasure scares us.

Insecurity stops us from experiencing satisfying things.

6. It is enough to be, to be superior.

We are all special.

7. When we silence words, objects become language.

The truth finds its way to the light of day one way or another.

8. Words are pieces of affection that sometimes carry a bit of information.

The only way to know our emotions is by expressing them.

9. There are those who remain silent to hide, those who lower their heads and avoid glances to isolate themselves from others.

When we isolate ourselves, we make a problem bigger because its weight is only on our shoulders.

10. Resilience is a process that is always possible, if the person who is developing finds an object that is significant to him.

Talking about the way resilience works and how it can bring its positive effect.

11. It is lack that invites creativity.

Many artists create to fill a void in their souls.

12. We talk, we talk, and the words follow one another, but only when the music of the voice prepares us for the final point do we finally understand where they were taking us.

Many words is not the same as knowing how to communicate.

13. It's all too easy to think that only monsters are capable of monstrous acts.

All human beings are capable of doing good, but they are also capable of much evil.

14. The less knowledge you have, the more convictions you have.

Ignorance has the peculiarity of magnifying the ego of people.

15. The paradox of the human condition is that you can only become yourself under the influence of others.

It's okay to listen to the advice of others, but always to find our own way.

16. Unhappiness is never pure, and neither is happiness.

Things are never black or white, because there are thousands of things in between.

17. No one claims that resilience is a recipe for happiness.

It's a tool that helps us move forward, but it can't do everything for us.

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18. God is conceived in different ways depending on the personal development of believers and according to their cultural context.

Many people can believe in God, even if it is not in the same way.

19. In healthy memory, the representation of oneself tells the way of living that allows us to be happy.

And it is that image that we project that we seek to make a reality in our lives.

20. Love in all its manifestations is the cure to heal childhood wounds.

Love is essential for the ideal development of all people.

21. There is a point, perhaps even more important than being loved, that is not emphasized enough.

It is not only about giving unconditional love, but about supporting the other in the projects they have.

22. To hate is to remain a prisoner of the past. To overcome it, it is better to understand than to forgive.

Understanding helps us to leave an event in the past and not take importance in our present.

23. Life is crazy, isn't it? That's why it's exciting.

Life and its changes offer us different ways of seeing the world.

24. If there are no events, there is no history, there is no identity.

It is the experiences we live that shape our identity.

25. The transmission of information through words barely represents 35 percent of the message!

It's not just what we say but how we say it.

26. It is not about choosing between punishing or forgiving, but between understanding to gain a little freedom or submitting to experience happiness in slavery.

Emphasizing the need to let go of hate and pain to move on.

27. Resilience is the art of navigating torrents, the art of metamorphosing pain to make sense of it; the ability to be happy even when you have wounds in your soul.

The power that resilience exerts on us when we carry it out.

28. What determines the quality of their resilience is the quality of the bond they have been able to forge before the trauma and immediately after.

It's having the commitment to want to face what was and also to let it go.

29. You have to learn to observe to avoid the poisonous beauty of metaphors.

Building our dreams should not take our feet away from reality.

30. The genetic factor exists but it says almost nothing about the human condition.

We can be influenced by genetics, but this is not absolute in our personality.

31. A word allows organizing another way of understanding the mystery of those who achieved it: the resilience, which designates the ability to get ahead, to live, to develop despite the adversity.

By ordering our ideas we are able to better express what we have been through.

32. Love is a surprise that tears us from the insipid, attachment is a bond that is woven daily.

It is a force that makes us appreciate life in a more joyful way.

33. Poetry is old-fashioned for those who are sated, but when the real is unbearable, it acquires the value of a weapon to survive.

As the saying goes, 'poetry is for those who want to read it'.

34. Our laughter is a weapon. We are stronger than despair.

That is why it is so important to maintain a good mood at all times.

35. Creativity would come to be the daughter of suffering. Which is not to say that suffering is the mother of all creativity.

There is a clear difference between using suffering as a muse and depending on suffering to be a creator.

36. An adversity is a wound that is inscribed in our history, but it is not a destination.

Mistakes or failures do not determine our future, they are lessons to improve.

37. What is the secret of the strength that allowed him to pick flowers in the dung?

It is the ability to take positive lessons from something bad.

38. A life devoted to pleasure brings us to despair as surely as a life without pleasure.

This happens when we try to fill a void with things we don't really need.

39. Resilience is more than resisting, it is also learning to live.

It's finding meaning in what we feel is holding us back, so we can move on.

40. That resilience has not been studied, despite the fact that all the physicians have verified it, is very telling about our culture, a culture for which the survivors remain suspects.

Thanks to the efforts of people like him, resilience is now a hot topic.

41. A true relationship causes a reciprocal influence. They are two intimate worlds that interact and one modifies the other.

The goal that should be pursued when looking for a partner.

42. Imagine that we are balanced people with a peaceful life, there would be no event, no crisis, no trauma to overcome, only routine, nothing to remember; we wouldn't even be able to find out who we are.

Using the concept of resilience to show us a more positive side of the problems that surround us.

43. The human being needs to be loved. But not only to be loved, but to love and be loved.

Love alone is not enough, but recognition and validation as people is also needed.

44. In traumatic memory, an incredible tear fixes the past image and clouds thought.

A trauma clings to the past and the refusal to live the same thing again, even if we have to lock ourselves up for it.

45. It is a strategy to combat misfortune that allows you to extract pleasure from living, despite the murmur of ghosts from the depths of your memory.

Explaining the benefits we get from practicing resilience.

46. What I lost in illusions, I gained in tenderness.

By better understanding the circumstances, we can empathize with the situations of others.

47. All sorrows can be endured if you put them in a story.

Telling our story is an excellent catharsis therapy.

48. If suffering restricts creativity, that does not mean that one must be forced to suffer in order to become creative.

Many artists use pain as a source of inspiration, but not all creations originate from suffering.

49. This set constituted by a personal temperament, a cultural significance and a social support, explains the amazing diversity of traumas.

Not all traumas come from the same place and even if they do, they have different meanings for people.

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50. Yesterday, the pain was a sign of the weakness of the wounded, today it reveals the incompetence of the professional.

Each suffering is personal and therefore must be respected.

51. Resilience is the art of metamorphosing pain to give it meaning.

It's knowing how to change pain from something nefarious to something normal.

52. One can be reborn a little, but one lives differently, because a deadly anguish invades our souls.

Starting over does not necessarily imply leaving the whole past behind, because we are left with something.

53. If we accept the idea that we speak in order to influence the other to become receptive to our own affections, we will understand the need for those little crushes.

It is human to want others to understand the situations we go through.

54. Tormented by our memories, we dedicate ourselves to polishing our memory.

In the search to avoid pain, we hide thousands of memories that are close to any form of suffering.

55. Only myths make deterministic stories.

Cultures are based on myths that make them great or dangerous.

56. The surest way to torture a man is to make him desperate by saying: "There is no why here." This sentence makes him fall into the world of things, submits them to things and makes himself a thing.

We always want to find an answer to our questions and when we don't have it, we fall into perpetual despair.

57. Every wounded man is forced into metamorphosis.

The only way to get ahead is to change.

58. With biological, affective, psychological and social yarns, we spend our lives weaving ourselves.

We are made up of thousands of experiences and personal traits.

59. Counting is exposing yourself to danger. To remain silent is to isolate oneself.

By exposing ourselves we show our vulnerabilities but we also open up to heal.

60. When the "I" is fragile, the "we" serves as a prosthesis.

There are those who develop a negative attachment to others because they do not like to be with themselves.