If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

—Abraham Maslow

perception tools

About Abraham Maslow

Portrait of Abraham Maslow

Abraham Harold Maslow ( MAZ-loh; April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.

More quotations from Abraham Maslow

There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers… even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.

—Abraham Maslow

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

—Abraham Maslow

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

—Abraham Maslow

accomplishment being becoming self-actualization

More quotations tagged with “tools”

Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.

learning teaching impossible tools support

I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc.

—Jackson Pollock

art tools painting

There is no other species on the Earth that does science. It is, so far, entirely a human invention, evolved by natural selection in the cerebral cortex for one simple reason: it works. It is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. We must understand the Cosmos as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.

—Carl Sagan in Cosmos

science earth tools brains

Men have become the tools of their tools.

—Henry David Thoreau

humanity power purpose tools distraction

History

20 Jan 2015 Added