18 
GRAVES QUOTES
ON THE HEALTHY LEVEL OF EXISTENCE WITHIN THE HIERARCHY
“Damn it all, a person has the right to be who he is”
OBSERVATIONS ON INDIVIDUALS IN THE SEVENTH LEVEL (A’-N’ OR G-T SYSTEM) AND THEIR ABILITY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
“I found this peculiar phenomenon: The A’ N’s find unbelievably more solutions that all the others (the entire First Tier) put together. They arrived at solutions that were amazingly better and in a shorter period of time.”
Clare W. Graves, The Never Ending Quest, ECLET Pub., p. 371.
ON THE COMPREHENSIVE NATURE OF THE FRAMEWORK
“The message from the data said: Seek a basic language that allows the meaning of life to change with time, a message that allows the meaning of life to change in an ordered hierarchical way, and which leaves the hierarchy open -ended. Then seek language which allows for this normal open movement to become arrested and closed”
Graves, NEQ, p.136.
ON THE OPEN-ENDED, “TRANSCEND & INCLUDE” NATURE OF THE FRAMEWORK
“If we are to conceptualize adequately, we must try to explain in one overall system not only the old systems of behavior, but also the systems of behavior that are new. And beyond this, it appears that psychological theorists must include within their conceptualizing matrix that there will be other, even newer, forms of humanity which will appear in the future”
Graves, NEQ, 142.
ON THEÂ NEUROLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL LIMITATIONS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
“ In some cases, a person may not be genetically or constitutionally equipped to change in the normal upward direction when the conditions of his existence change. Instead, he may stabilize and live out his life at any one or a combination of levels in the hierarchy. ”
ON THE UPWARD MOVEMENT TO HIGHER VALUES (EXITING A CERTAIN LEVEL)
“My research indicates that something is indeed happening to human values, but it is not so much a collapse in the fiber of man as a sign of human health and intelligence. Instead, man is learning that
values and ways of living which were good for him at one period in
his development are no longer good because of the changed
condition of his existence. He is recognizing that the old values
are no longer appropriate, but he has not yet understood the new.“
ON THE HIERARCHICAL NATURE OF THE FRAMEWORK
The error which most people make when they think about
human values is that they assume the nature of man is fixed and
there is a single set of human values by which he should live.
Such an assumption does not fit with my research. My data indicate
that man’s nature is an open, constantly evolving system, a system
which proceeds by quantum jumps from one steady state system to
the next through a hierarchy of ordered systems.”Â
ON THE TRANSITION TO THE 7TH LEVEL (YELLOW, A’-N’, OR G-T)
“Humans must prepare for a momentous leap….It is not merely a transition to a new level of existence but the start of a new ‘movement’ in the symphony of human history.”
ON THE ALIGNMENT OF THE RIGHT VALUE FIT
“I am not saying in this conception of adult behavior that one style of being, one form of human existence is inevitably and in all circumstances superior to or better than another form of human existence, another style of being. What I am saying is that when one form of being is more congruent with the realities of existence, then it is the better form of living for those realities. And what I am saying is that when one form of existence ceases to be functional for the realities of existence then some other form, either higher or lower in the hierarchy, is the better form of living. I do suggest, however, and this I deeply believe is so, that for the overall welfare of total man’s existence in this world, over the long run of time, higher levels are better than lower levels and that the prime good of any society’s governing figures should be to promote human movement up the levels of human existence.”
ON THE ORIGINS OF THE “NEVER ENDING QUEST” TERMINOLOGY.
“At each stage of human existence the adult man is off on his quest of his holy grail, the way of life he seeks by which to live. At his first level he is on a quest for automatic physiological satisfaction. At the second level he seeks a safe mode of living, and this is followed in turn, by a search for heroic status, for power and glory, by a search for ultimate peace; a search for material pleasure, a search for affectionate relations, a search for respect of self, and a search for peace in an incomprehensible world. And, when he finds he will not find that peace, he will be off on his ninth level quest. As he sets off on each quest, he believes he will find the answer to his existence. Yet, much to his surprise and much to his dismay, he finds at every stage that the solution to existence is not the solution he has come to find. Every stage he reaches leaves him disconcerted and perplexed. It is simply that as he solves one set of human problems he finds a new set in their place. The quest he finds is never ending.”
READ OR DOWNLOAD GRAVES’ ORIGINAL SUMMARY OF HIS FRAMEWORK PUBLISHED IN THE FUTURIST MAGAZINE IN 1974 HERE