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And when he came to the place where the wild things are, they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws till Max said, 'Be still' and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once. And they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all and made him king of all wild things.

Maurice Sendak#1

ChildrenFearConfrontationCourageImaginationPower

About this quote

What does it mean?
Confronting wild, fearsome creatures requires calm and confidence rather than fear. Max tames them by staring them down, becoming their king.
In plain terms
Facing your fears with calm makes them less scary.
What can you take from it?
Courage and composure can tame even the wildest fears.

Where it applies

  • overcoming anxiety
  • parenting
  • personal growth

Putting it to work

  • facing fears directly
  • maintaining composure

Questions to consider

  • What wild things do you face?
  • How do you tame your fears?

Another view

This approach assumes the 'wild things' respond to rationality, which isn't always true.

More from Maurice Sendak

  1. Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a p…

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  2. There must be more to life than having everything!

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  3. I believe there is no part of our lives, our adult as well as child life, when we're not fantasizing, but we prefer to relegate fantasy to children, as though …

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