One of the easiest ways to be irresponsible about power is to forget you have it. Rollo May More Quotes by Rollo May More Quotes From 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, so courage makes possible all the psychological virtues. Without courage other values wither away into mere facsimiles of virtue. Rollo May inspiration heart blood 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. This is what makes heroism so important: it reflects our own sense of identity and from this our own heroism is molded. Rollo May hero inspiring order The ultimate error is the refusal to look evil in the face. Rollo May errors evil looks Recall how often in human history the saint and the rebel have be the same person. (p. 35) Rollo May rebel saint humans Suffering is nature's way of indicating a mistaken attitude or way of behavior, and to the nonegocentric person every moment of suffering is the opportunity for growth. People should rejoice in suffering, strange as it sounds, for this is a sign of the availability of energy to transform their characters. Rollo May opportunity attitude character Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one's death. Rollo May childhood creativity passion Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously. Rollo May beauty giving peace A dynamic struggle goes on within a person between what he or she consciously thinks on the one hand and, on the other, some insight, some perspective that is struggling to be born. Rollo May struggle hands thinking The function of the rebel is to shake the fixated mores of the rigid order of civilization; and this shaking, though painful, is necessary if the society is to be saved from boredom and apathy. Obviously I do not refer to everyone who calls himself a rebel, but only to the authentic rebel. Civilization gets its first flower from the rebel. Rollo May flower civilization order The essence of being human is that, in the brief moment we exist on this spinning planet, we can love some persons and some things, in spite of the fact that time and death will ultimately claim us all. Rollo May spinning essence facts 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. 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. Rollo May intellectual religious attitude Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable. Rollo May self-actualization intimacy risk I learned that healing and cure are active processes in which I myself needed to participate. Rollo May cures process healing We must always base our commitment in the center of our own being, or else no commitment will be ultimately authentic. Rollo May enviromental inspirational commitment It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way. Rollo May wisdom running inspirational Mass communication--wonder as it may be technologically and something to be appreciated and valued--presents us wit a serious daner, the danger of conformism, due to the fact that we all view the same things at the same time in all the cities of the country. (p. 73) Rollo May communication views country Violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness. Rollo May powerlessness arise violence Evil, in this system of ethics, is that which tears apart, shuts out the other person, raises barriers, sets people against each other. Rollo May tears evil people It requires greater courage to preserve inner freedom, to move on in one's inward journey into new realms, than to stand defiantly for outer freedom. It is often easier to play the martyr, as it is to be rash in battle. Rollo May freedom journey moving When you are completely absorbed or caught up in something, you become oblivious to things around you, or to the passage of time. It is this absorption in what you are doing that frees your unconscious and releases your creative imagination. Rollo May creativity imagination time