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

Rollo May

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

Acorn Automatic Become Commitment Growth Mean Necessary Oak
Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.
ROLLO MAY

Absence Ahead Capacity Courage Despair Move Rather Spite
One central need in life is to fulfill its own potential.
ROLLO MAY

Central Fulfill Life Need One Own Potential
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.
ROLLO MAY

Become Differentiate Experience Feeling Many Mature Nuance Passionate Person Strong
Vanity and narcissism – the compulsive need to be admired and praised – undermine one’s courage, for one then fights on someone else’s conviction rather than one’s own.
ROLLO MAY

Admire Compulsive Fight Narcissism Ned One Praise Underminem Courage Vanity
However it may be confounded or covered up or counterfeited, this elemental capacity to fight against injustice remains the distinguishing characteristic of human beings.
ROLLO MAY

Against Capacity Confound Counterfeited Cover Element Fight However Injustice
All our feelings, like the artist’s paints and brush, are ways of communicating and sharing something meaningful from us to the world.
ROLLO MAY

Artist Brush Communicating Feeling Like Meaningful Paint Share Something Way World
Courage is necessary to make being and becoming possible.
ROLLO MAY

Being Courage Make Necessary Possible
The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.
ROLLO MAY

Conformity Courage Cowardice Opposite Society
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
To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive – to grief, sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment, and an intensity of consciousness we did not know was possible before
ROLLO MAY

Love Mena Negative Ourselves Positive Well
The creative act arises out of the struggle of human beings with and against that which limits them.
ROLLO MAY

Act Against Arise Being Creative Human Limit Struggle
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
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
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
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

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

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

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