Rollo May Quotes - Page 2

Fortunately, however, we no longer have to argue that self -love is not only necessary and good but that it also is a prerequisite for loving others.

The hallmark of courage in our age of conformity is the capacity to stand on one's own convictions - not obstinately or defiantly

One of the easiest ways to be irresponsible about power is to forget you have it.

Indeed, compulsive and rigid moralism arises in given persons precisely as the result of a lack of sense of being. Rigid moralism is a compensatory mechanism by which the individual persuades himself to take over the external sanctions because he has no fundamental assurance that his own choices have any sanction of their own

To believe fully and at the same moment to have doubts is not at all a contradiction: it presupposes a greater respect for truth, an awareness that truth always goes beyond anything that can be said or done at any given moment.

Finding the center of strength within ourselves is in the long run the best contribution we can make to our fellow men. ... One person with indigenous inner strength exercises a great calming effect on panic among people around him. This is what our society needs - not new ideas and inventions; important as these are, and not geniuses and supermen, but persons who can be, that is, persons who have a center of strength within themselves.

Humor is the healthy way of feeling "distance" between one's self and the problem, a way of standing off and looking at one's problem with perspective.

Courage is necessary to make being and becoming possible.

Many people feel they are powerless to do anything effective with their lives. It takes courage to break out of the settled mold, but most find conformity more comfortable. This is why the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity.

Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one's identity as a being of worth and dignity.

Recall how often in human history the saint and the rebel have be the same person. (p. 35)

Violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness.

Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, this is me and the damned world can go to hell.

We express our being by creating. Creativity is a necessary sequel to being.

One central need in life is to fulfill its own potential.

However it may be confounded or covered up or counterfeited, this elemental capacity to fight against injustice remains the distinguishing characteristic of human beings.

Life comes from physical survival; but the good life comes from what we care about.

It is dangerous to know, but it is more dangerous not to know.

Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being.

Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously.

In my clinical experience, the greatest block to a person's development is his having to take on a way of life which is not rooted in his own powers.

There is nobody who totally lacks the courage to change.

Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.

It is well to remind ourselves that anxiety signifies a conflict, and so long as a conflict is going on, a constructive solution is possible.

It is amazing how many hints and guides and intuitions for living come to the sensitive person who has ears to hear what his body is saying.