# Quote — Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

> Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above ground lasts only a single summer. What we see is the blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains.

- Author: [Carl Jung](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung.md)
- Book: [Memories, Dreams, Reflections](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Jung#Memories,_Dreams,_Reflections_(1963)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections/life-has-always

## More from this book

> For lack of empirical data I have neither knowledge nor understanding of such forms of being, which are commonly called spiritual. ...Nevertheless, we have good reason to suppose that behind this veil there exists the uncomprehended absolute object which affects and influences us—and to suppose it even, or particularly, in the case of psychic phenomena about which no verifiable statements can be made.

p. 351 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections/for-lack-of-empirical.md)

> The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong. The numinosum is dangerous because it lures men to extremes, so that a modest truth is regarded as the truth and a minor mistake is equated with fatal error.

p. 154 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections/the-pendulum-of-the.md)

> As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

p. 326 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-jung/memories-dreams-reflections/as-far-as-we-can.md)