The shadow is often project on to others. Examination of those attributes which a man most condemns in other people (greed, intolerance, disregard for others, etc.) usually shows that, unacknowledged, he himself possesses them.

– C.G. Jung

Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself to or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. …. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected, and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of unawareness.

– C.G. Jung

Side anecdote: I was bringing this book into the sauna and this dude said “Hey… you read Jung! I went to a liberal arts school.” I told him I had read “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” recently. He told me he had the book.

At this point I started to get the feeling that he might have a lot of books but read very few (alas, like the quote above, I am guilty of the same and so find it unbecoming.)

Then he told me that I shouldn’t bring the book into the sauna because it could ruin the binding. I said that I was just going in for a couple minutes and that it should be fine. Then he added: “You know… I’m saying this as a lover of books…” As if I am not one!

I wasn’t quick enough, and I wouldn’t have said anything anyway, but it would make a good story if I had retorted: “Oh, well then, you should try reading one.”