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Every individual acts and suffers in accordance with his peculiar teleology, which has all the inevitability of fate, so long as he does not understand it.
Alfred Adler
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Each person's actions and experiences are shaped by their unique purposes, which feel predetermined unless acknowledged.

This quote by Alfred Adler suggests that individuals operate based on their unique life purposes or teleologies. When people lack awareness of these guiding purposes, their lives may feel fated or determined, implying that understanding oneself can lead to more conscious actions and a sense of agency in life.

Themes

IndividualTeleologyFateUnderstandingSelf-Awareness

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech about personal growth.

More from Alfred Adler

Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
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The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.
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All failures - neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, perverts, and prostitutes - are failures because they are lacking in social interest
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What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!
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We only regard those unions as real examples of love and real marriages in which a fixed and unalterable decision has been taken. If men or women contemplate an escape, they do not collect all their powers for the task. In none of the serious and important tasks of life do we arrange such a "getaway." We cannot love and be limited.
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