We define religion as the assumption that life has meaning. Religion, or lack of it, is shown not in some intellectual or verbal formulations but in one’s total orientation to life.
ROLLO MAYThe purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free.
More Rollo May Quotes
-
-
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.
ROLLO MAY -
Anxiety is essential to the human condition. The confrontation with anxiety can relieve us from boredom, sharpen the sensitivity and assure the presence of tension that is necessary to preserve human existence.
ROLLO MAY -
I learned that healing and cure are active processes in which I myself needed to participate.
ROLLO MAY -
Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem.
ROLLO MAY -
The ultimate error is the refusal to look evil in the face.
ROLLO MAY -
Depression is the inability to construct a future.
ROLLO MAY -
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.
ROLLO MAY -
Violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness.
ROLLO MAY -
This is what makes heroism so important: it reflects our own sense of identity and from this our own heroism is molded.
ROLLO MAY -
Creativity is neither the product of neurosis nor simple talent, but an intense courageous encounter with the Gods.
ROLLO MAY -
Apathy adds up, in the long run, to cowardice.
ROLLO MAY -
Courage is not a virtue of value among other personal values like love or fidelity. It is the foundation that underlies and gives reality to all other virtues and personal values. Without courage our love pales into mere dependency. Without courage our fidelity becomes conformism.
ROLLO MAY -
It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.
ROLLO MAY -
The word courage comes from the same stem as the French word Coeur, meaning “heart.” Thus just as one’s heart, by pumping blood to one’s arms, legs, and brain enables all the other physical organs to function.
ROLLO MAY -
It is an old and ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way; and we grasp more fiercely at research, statistics, and technical aids in sex when we have lost the values and meaning of love.
ROLLO MAY






