Good art wounds as well as delights. It must, because our defenses against the truth are wound so tightly around us. But as art chips away at our defenses, it also opens us to healing potentialities that transcend intellectual games and ego-preserving strategies.
ROLLO MAYIt is well to remind ourselves that anxiety signifies a conflict, and so long as a conflict is going on, a constructive solution is possible.
More Rollo May Quotes
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There is no authentic inner freedom that does not, sooner or later, also affect and change human history.
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Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.
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One central need in life is to fulfill its own potential.
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The amazing thing about love is that it is the best way to get to know ourselves.
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Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.
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Creativity is the encounter of the intensively conscious human being with his world.
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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.
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The ultimate error is the refusal to look evil in the face.
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One of the few blessings of living in an age of anxiety is that we are forced to become aware of ourselves.
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Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously.
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Depression is the inability to construct a future.
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Forge in the smithy of your soul.
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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.
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Creativity is neither the product of neurosis nor simple talent, but an intense courageous encounter with the Gods.
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When people feel their insignificance as individual persons, they also suffer an undermining of their sense of human responsibility.
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When I fall in love, I feel more valuable and I treat myself with more care. We have all observed the hesitant adolescent, uncertain of himself, who, when he or she falls in love, suddenly walks with a certain inner assuredness and confidence/
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Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.
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The one thing we can be certain of is that if we let ourselves fully into the relationship for good or evil, we will not come out unaffected.
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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.
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In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.
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The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt.
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Understanding and love require a wisdom that comes only with age.
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Violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness.
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Does not the possibility or the power to do something about the situation at hand confer on one the responsibility to do it?
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Real freedom is the ability to pause between stimulus and response, and in that pause, choose.
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The first thing necessary for a constructive dealing with time is to learn to live in the reality of the present moment. For psychologically speaking, this present moment is all we have.
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