“In most men, the conscious and the unconscious being hardly ever make contact; consequently the conscious aim is to make himself as comfortable as possible with as little effort as possible. But there are other men, whom we have been calling, for convenience, ‘Outsiders’, whose conscious and unconscious being keep in closer contact, and the conscious mind is forever aware of the urge to care about ‘more abundant life’, and care less about comfort and stability and the rest of the notions that are so dear to the bourgeois.”

Source: The Outsider (1956), Chapter Nine, Breaking the Circuit

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In most men, the conscious and the unconscious being hardly ever make contact; consequently the conscious aim is to mak…" by Colin Wilson?

Colin Wilson192

author 1931–2013

Related quotes

“Woman, in short, has an unconscious life, man a conscious life, and the genius the most conscious life.”

Otto Weininger book Sex and Character

Source: Sex and Character (1903), p. 113.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

“God is Spirit in whom we "live, and move, and have our being." We are the offspring of this Spirit and can make conscious contact with it by turning our attention away from material things and thinking about Spirit. As we practice this kind of prayer our innate Spirit showers its life energies into our conscious mind and a great soul expansion follows.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Teach Us to Pray with Cora Fillmore (1941)

“Ah, to be you while being I!
To have your glad unconsciousness
And be conscious of it!”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Ah, poder ser tu, sendo eu!
Ter a tua alegre inconsciência,
E a consciência disso!
"Ela canta, pobre ceifeira" ["She sings, poor reaper"], first published in Athena, no. 3 (December 1924); trans. Richard Zenith, A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe (Penguin, 2006)

“Belief in a transcendental divinity arose from a misinterpretation of intimations from the less conscious levels of the mind. …God is in the unconscious, is the unconscious, perhaps.”

Lancelot Law Whyte (1896–1972) Scottish industrial engineer

The Universe of Experience: A Worldview Beyond Science and Religion (1974)

“The conscious mind allows itself to be trained like a parrot, but the unconscious does not”

C.G. Jung book Psychology and Alchemy

which is why St. Augustine thanked God for not making him responsible for his dreams.
par. 51 p.46
Psychology and Alchemy (1952)

“The question concerns the texture of daily life. Does the individual live with the assurance, conscious or unconscious, that We are absolute—or with the challenge of being, both as I and as We, finite and human?”

Merold Westphal (1940)

Source: Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992), p. 38