I learned that healing and cure are active processes in which I myself needed to participate.
ROLLO MAYFreedom is man’s capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves.
More Rollo May Quotes
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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.
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One does not become fully human painlessly.
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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.
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The ultimate error is the refusal to look evil in the face.
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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.
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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.
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If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.
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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.
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Forge in the smithy of your soul.
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People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day to day.
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Religion is whatever the individual takes to be his ultimate concern. One’s religious attitude is to be found at that point where he has a conviction that there are values in human existence worth living and dying for.
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When we are dealing with human beings, no truth has reality by itself; it is always dependent upon the reality of the immediate relationship.
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The mature person becomes able to differentiate feelings into as many nuances, strong and passionate experiences, or delicate and sensitive ones, as in the different passages of music in a symphony. Unfortunately, many of us have feelings limited like notes in a bugle call.
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The creative act arises out of the struggle of human beings with and against that which limits them.
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Freedom does not come automatically; it is achieved. And it is not gained in a single bound; it must be achieved each day.
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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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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.
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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.
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Competitive individualism militates against the experience of community, and that lack of community is a centrally important factor in contemporaneous anxiety.
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One central need in life is to fulfill its own potential.
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People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.
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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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Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable.
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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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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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Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously.
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