A biography for James Hillmanhasn’t been written yet.
“It is impossible to see the angel unless you first have a notion of it.”
“I can't read all the books I want to read, I can't watch all the phenomena that interest me in the world. The work calls me, and sometimes I wonder whether this is an obsession and I should drop it, or it's a necessity I'm obliged to fulfill.”
“Depression opens the door to beauty of some kind.”
“What door is opened into soul through our wounds.”
“We forget that the soul has its own ancestors.”
“I think we're miserable partly because we have only one god, and that's economics.”
“Too many people have been analyzing their pasts, their childhoods, their memories, their parents, and realizing that it doesn't do anything-or that it doesn't do enough.”
“I'm cautious about a lot of words.”
“It's important to ask yourself, How am I useful to others? What do people want from me? That may very well reveal what you are here for.”
“My suggestion is that there's no way out of the human condition. Sex, death, marriage, children, parents, illness. There's no way out. They're a misery, all of them.”
“It's very important for men to look downward, to the next generation.”
“We're an air bag society that wants guarantees on everything that we buy. We want to be able to take everything back and get another one. We want a 401-k plan and Social Security.”
“Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path... this is what I must do, this is what I've got to have. This is who I am.”
“Loss means losing what was we want to change but we don't want to lose. Without time for loss, we don't have time for soul.”
“מחשבת הלב כמחשבה ריבונית ואצילה, מאושרת, ערנית כחיה, נועזת, אמיצה, מרוממת, מתענגת על צורות שונות של חשיבה ונחושה לצאת להגנתן, מתפרשת עד בלי די גם בחמלתה וגם בכוחה החזיוני, בוראת יופי בשפת הדימויים.”
“חייך הם אפוא פעילות בלתי פוסקת של דמיון; אתה מדמיין ובכך יוצר את קיומך.”
“הדמיון הוא קולו האותנטי של הלב, ושאם אנו מדברים מהלב אנו מוכרחים לפיכך לדבר מכוח הדמיון.”
“אנו מתבלבלים ורואים בדמותי את הסובייקטיבי והפנימי וסבורים בטעות כי המהותי הוא חיצוני ואובייקטיבי.”
“כאשר אנו מתאהבים, אנו מתחילים לדמיין; וכאשר אנו מתחילים לדמיין, אנו מתאהבים.”
“הביוגרפיה שלנו היא משנית או מקרית, והדימוי שבלב הוא ראשוני ומהותי.”