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The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them.

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

Among Courage Fidelity Love Personal Value Virtue
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.
ROLLO MAY

Accompany Emotion Fulfilling Goal Happiness Joy Life Nation Rather
This is what makes heroism so important: it reflects our own sense of identity and from this our own heroism is molded.
ROLLO MAY

Heroism Identity Important Make Mold Reflect Sense
One of the easiest ways to be irresponsible about power is to forget you have it.
ROLLO MAY

Forget Have Irresponsible One Easiest Power Way
Competitive individualism militates against the experience of community, and that lack of community is a centrally important factor in contemporaneous anxiety.
ROLLO MAY

Against Aleck Community Competitive Contemporary Experience Factor Important Individualism Militate
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

Arise Between Creativity Limitation Spontaneously Tension
Courage is the capacity to meet the anxiety which arises as one achieves freedom. It is the willingness to differentiate, to move from the protecting realms of parental dependence to new levels of freedom and integration.
ROLLO MAY

Achieve Anxiety Capacity Courage Freedom Meet Write
There is an energy field between humans. And, when we reach out in passion, it is met with an answering passion and changes the relationship forever.
ROLLO MAY

Answer Between Change Energy Field Human Met Passion Reach Relationship
Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.
ROLLO MAY

Confuse Dependence Fact Generally Love Point
The hallmark of courage in our age of conformity is the capacity to stand on one’s own convictions – not obstinately or defiantly
ROLLO MAY

Age Capacity Conformity Conviction Courage Hallmark Obstinately One Our Own Stand
Many people suffer from the fear of finding oneself alone, and so they don’t find themselves at all.
ROLLO MAY

Alone Fear Find Many Oneself People Suffer
People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day to day.
ROLLO MAY

Day Decision Dignity Make Multitude People Worth
Depression is the inability to construct a future.
ROLLO MAY

Construct Depression Future Inability
Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.
ROLLO MAY

Apathy Hate Love Opposite
A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.
ROLLO MAY

Make Myth Sense Senseless Way World
Creativity is the encounter of the intensively conscious human being with his world.
ROLLO MAY

Being Conscious Creativity Encounter Human Intensively World
It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.
ROLLO MAY

Habit Human Being Ironic Lost Way
Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable. We cannot know at the outset how the relationship will affect us. Like a chemical mixture, if one of us is changed, both of us will be. Will we grow in self-actualization, or will it destroy us?
ROLLO MAY

Courage Effect Inescapable Intimacy Know Outlet Relationship Require Risk
Heroes are necessary in order to enable the citizens to find their own ideals, courage and wisdom in the society. The hero carries our hopes, our aspirations, our ideals, our beliefs. In the deepest sense the hero is created by us; he or she is born collectively as our own myth.
ROLLO MAY

Citizen Courage Enable Find Hero Ideal Necessary Order Own Society Wisdom
Artists love to immerse themselves in chaos in order to put it into form, just as God created form out of chaos in Genesis. Forever unsatisfied with the mundane, the apathetic, the conventional, they always push on to newer worlds.
ROLLO MAY

Artist Chaos Create Form Genesis God Immerse Into Love Order Out Themselves
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

Best Center Contribution Fellow Men Find Long Makem Our Ourselves Run Strength
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.
ROLLO MAY

Believe ContrAction Doubt Fully Greater Moment Presuppose Respect Same
Real freedom is the ability to pause between stimulus and response, and in that pause, choose.
ROLLO MAY

Ability Choose Freedom Pause Real Response Stimulus
Deeds of violence in our society are performed largely by those trying to establish their self-esteem, to defend their self-image, and to demonstrate that they, too, are significant.
ROLLO MAY

Deed Establish Esteem Largely Perform Self Society Those Try Violence
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.
ROLLO MAY

Anything Effective Feel Live Most People Powerless
When people feel their insignificance as individual persons, they also suffer an undermining of their sense of human responsibility.
ROLLO MAY

Human Individual Responsibility Significance Suffer
People only change when it becomes too dangerous to stay the way they are.
ROLLO MAY

Become Change Dangerous People Seat Too Way

The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them.

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The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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