Carl Jung Creative Quotations

Without playing with fantasy, no creative work has yet come into being.

From the living fountain of instinct flows everything that is creative; hence the unconscious is not merely conditioned by history, but is the very source of the creative impulse. It is like nature herself - prodigiously conservative, and yet transcending her own historical conditions in her acts of creation.

The primordial image, or archetype, is a figure--be it a daemon, a human being, or a process--that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed. Essentially, therefore, it is a mythological figure. . . . In each of these images there is a little piece of human psychology and human fate, a remnant of the joys and sorrows that have been repeated countless times in our ancestral history. . . .

As one grows older one must try not to work oneself to death unnecessarily. At least that's how it is with me... I can scarcely keep pace and must watch out that the creative forces do not chase me around the universe in a wallop.

Creative power is mightier than its possessor.

The creative person is overpowered, captive of and driven by a demon... They become our legendary heroes.

A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daimon.

Continuous creation is to be thought of not only as a series of successive acts of creation, but also as the eternal presence of the one creative act.

True art is creation, and creation is beyond all theories. That is why I say to any beginner: Learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul. Not theories but your own creative individuality alone must decide.

Only in our creative acts do we step forth into the light and see ourselves whole and complete.

The psychic depths are nature, and nature is creative life.

The creative process is a living thing, implanted, as it were in the souls of men.

There is rarely a creative man who does not have to pay a high price for the divine spark of his great gifts . . . the human element is frequently bled for the benefit of the creative element.

Creative powers can just as easily turn out to be destructive. It rests solely with the moral personality whether they apply themselves to good things or to bad. And if this is lacking, no teacher can supply it or take its place.