Purpose in the human being is a much more complex phenomenon than what used to be called will power. Rollo May More Quotes by Rollo May More Quotes From Rollo May Life comes from physical survival; but the good life comes from what we care about. Rollo May good-lifesurvivallife Communication leads to community that is, to understanding, intimacy, and the mutual valuing that was previously lacking. Community can be defined simply as a group in which free conversation can take place. Community is where I can share my innermost thoughts, bring out the depths of my own feelings, and know they will be understood. Rollo May communicationcommunityfeelings 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. Rollo May hellcultureworld One of the few blessings of living in an age of anxiety is that we are forced to become aware of ourselves. Rollo May anxietyblessingage 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. Rollo May quiet-peoplebeing-aloneinspirational 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. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage. Rollo May catcouragemean 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. Rollo May ironicrunningsex Memory is not just the imprint of the past time upon us; it is the keeper of what is meaningful for our deepest hopes and fears. Rollo May meaningfulmemoriespast 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. This is what our society needs - not new ideas and inventions; important as these are, and not geniuses and supermen, but persons who can be, that is, persons who have a center of strength within themselves. Rollo May exerciserunningmen There can be no stronger proof of the impoverishment of our contemporary culture than the popular - though profoundly mistaken - definition of myth as falsehood. Rollo May strongerdefinitionsculture The purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free. Rollo May existentialpurposepeople Science, Nietzsche had warned, is becoming a factory, and the result will be ethical nihilism. Rollo May existentialbecomingnihilism 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 emotionalgoaljoy What is courage? This courage will not be the opposite of despair. We shall often be faced with despair, as indeed every sensitive person has been during the last several decades in this country. Hence Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Camus and Sartre have proclaimed that courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair. Rollo May couragecountrymoving 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 truthdoubtbelieve Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being. Creativity requires passion and commitment. It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life. The experience is one of heightened consciousness: ecstasy. Rollo May creativitypassioncommitment 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? 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. Rollo May selfevilrelationship 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 passioninspirationallove What if imagination and art are not frosting at all, but the fountainhead of human experience? Rollo May what-ifimaginationart 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 mature-personsymphonystrong
