Personality Types Quotes

“Self-acceptance is a way of viewing oneself compassionately, without condemnation or justification. It is a starting point in life which makes other things possible. It celebrates the fullness of joy of being alive and of being who we are: accepting ourselves, however, does not mean embracing our neuroses or bad habits and celebrating them as if they were virtues. On the contrary, self-acceptance involves loving ourselves enough to accept painful truths about ourselves. . . . Self-acceptance is, at its simplest, the experience of one's self, here and now, as a complete human being, with all the glories and problems that condition entails.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“Kierkegaard's advice. He suggested that we become subjective toward others and objective toward ourselves. That is, when we judge the actions of others, we should put ourselves in their place, trying to understand how they see themselves and their world. And when we judge ourselves, we should see ourselves as others see us, overcoming the ease with which we find extenuating circumstances for ourselves.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“Attaining the goal of a full, happy life, ripe with experiences well-used, means that each of us will become a paradox—free, yet constrained by necessity; shrewd, yet innocent; open to others, yet self-reliant; strong, yet able to yield; centered on the highest values, yet able to accept imperfection; realistic about the suffering existence imposes on us, yet full of gratitude for life as it is.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“Self-understanding is the prelude to transformation, to moving beyond the ego and all that makes up what is called "false personality.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“everyone wants insight into others, few people are as willing to look so intently at themselves.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“In the artist of all kinds I think one can detect an inherent dilemma, which belongs to the co-existence of two trends, the urgent need to communicate and the still more urgent need not to be found....”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“Their healthy simplicity has deteriorated into obliviousness, a permanent absent-mindedness, as if they were constantly daydreaming about nothing in particular, perceiving the world like someone
who looks at a clock without seeing the time. Indeed, the way most people have trained themselves to ignore television commercials is how average Nines experience a lot of reality, disconnecting themselves from whatever they do not want to see or hear until inadvertence becomes habitual. They are like sleepwalkers, physically
present but not aware of what is going on around them.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“Their healthy simplicity has deteriorated into obliviousness, a permanent absent-mindedness, as if they were constantly daydream-
ing about nothing in particular, perceiving the world like someone
who looks at a clock without seeing the time. Indeed, the way most
people have trained themselves to ignore television commercials is how average Nines experience a lot of reality, disconnecting them-
selves from whatever they do not want to see or hear until inad-
vertence becomes habitual. They are like sleepwalkers, physically
present but not aware of what is going on around them.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“Genuine love wants what is best for the other, even if it means risking the relationship. Love wants the beloved to become strong and independent, even if it means that the Two must withdraw from the other's life. Real love is never used to take away from others what they would not freely give. Love outlives a lack of response, selfishness, and mistakes, no matter who is at fault. And it cannot be taken back. If it can be, it is not love.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“personality types very simply for now; they will become more sophisticated later on. In the Feeling Triad, the types are the Helper (the Two—the encouraging, demonstrative, possessive type), the Motivator (the Three—the ambitious, pragmatic, image-conscious type), and the Individualist (the Four—the sensitive, self-absorbed, depressive type). In the Thinking Triad, we see the Investigator (the Five—the perceptive, cerebral, provocative type), the Loyalist (the Six—the committed, dutiful, suspicious type), and the Enthusiast (the Seven—the spontaneous, fun-loving, excessive type). And in the Instinctive Triad, we find the Leader (the Eight—the self-confident, assertive, confrontational type), the Peacemaker (the Nine—the pleasant, easygoing, complacent type), and the Reformer (the One—the rational, idealistic, orderly type).”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“The difficulty is that average Fours may not know what their feelings are until after they have expressed them personally or artistically. But if they express all that they feel, they fear that they may reveal too much, exposing themselves to shame or punishment.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery

“the longest way round is the shortest way home.” Our truest fulfillment does not lie in the direction of a jealously guarded self but in the direction of self-transcendence as we learn to open to others and to reality.”
― Don Richard Riso, Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery