Rollo May Quotes

Quotes about:

• The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.

  Rollo May

  Courage, Soulmate, Self Esteem

  100 Copy quote

• Whatever sphere we may be in, there is a profound joy in the realization that we are helping to form the structure of the new world. This is creative courage, however minor or fortuitous our creations may be.

  Rollo May

  Courage, Creativity, Profound

  Rollo May (1994). “The Courage to Create”, p.35, W. W. Norton & Company

  7 Copy quote

• Care is a state in which something does matter; care is the opposite of apathy. Care is the necessary source of eros, the source of human tenderness.

  Rollo May

  Care, Matter, Doe

  "Love & Will".

  8 Copy quote

• Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.

  Rollo May

  Courage, Creative, Patterns

  Rollo May (1994). “The Courage to Create”, p.21, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  People, Evil, Tears

  Rollo May (1985). “My Quest for Beauty”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

  12 Copy quote

• The ultimate error is the refusal to look evil in the face.

  Rollo May

  Errors, Evil, Looks

  Rollo May (1999). “Freedom and Destiny”, p.227, W. W. Norton & Company

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Rollo May

  Distance, Self, Perspective

  Rollo May (2009). “Man's Search for Himself”, p.40, W. W. Norton & Company

  6 Copy quote

• When people feel their insignificance as individual persons, they also suffer an undermining of their sense of human responsibility.

  Rollo May

  Responsibility, People, Suffering

  "Psychology and the Human Dilemma". Book by Rollo May, p. 31, 1967.

  6 Copy quote

• Indeed, compulsive and rigid moralism arises in given persons precisely as the result of a lack of sense of being. Rigid moralism is a compensatory mechanism by which the individual persuades himself to take over the external sanctions because he has no fundamental assurance that his own choices have any sanction of their own

  Rollo May

  Choices, Fundamentals, Existentialism

  Rollo May (1994). “Existence”, p.45, Jason Aronson

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Courage, Conformity, Hallmark

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Self Esteem, Society, Trying

  Rollo May (1998). “Power and Innocence: A Search for the Sources of Violence”, p.23, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• It is highly significant and indeed almost a rule, that moral courage has its source in such identification through one's own sensitivity with suffering of one's fellow human beings." (p. 16-17)

  Rollo May

  Suffering, Moral, Significant

  6 Copy quote

• Does not the possibility or the power to do something about the situation at hand confer on one the responsibility to do it?

  Rollo May

  Character, Responsibility, Hands

  Rollo May (1999). “Freedom and Destiny”, p.100, W. W. Norton & Company

  5 Copy quote

• Joy is the effect which comes when we use our powers.

  Rollo May

  Joy, Use, Effects

  4 Copy quote

• The most effective way to ensure the value of the future is to confront the present courageously and constructively.

  Rollo May

  Way, Values

  Rollo May (2009). “Man's Search for Himself”, p.203, W. W. Norton & Company

  6 Copy quote

• Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.

  Rollo May

  Courage, Moving, Despair

  Rollo May (1994). “The Courage to Create”, p.12, W. W. Norton & Company

  95 Copy quote

• Real freedom is the ability to pause between stimulus and response, and in that pause, choose.

  Rollo May

  Real, Stimulus And Response, Ability

  79 Copy quote

• Joy is the zest that you get out of using your talents, your understanding, the totality of your being, for great aims...That's the kind of feeling that goes with creativity. That's why I say the courage to create. Creation does not come out of simply what you're born with. That must be united with your courage, both of which cause anxiety, but also great joy.

  Rollo May

  Courage, Creativity, Using Your Talents

  7 Copy quote

• If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.

  Rollo May

  Depression, Ideas, Creating

  Rollo May (1994). “The Courage to Create”, p.12, W. W. Norton & Company

  88 Copy quote

• Many people suffer from the fear of finding oneself alone, and so they don't find themselves at all.

  Rollo May

  People, Suffering, Introspection

  Rollo May (2009). “Man's Search for Himself”, p.13, W. W. Norton & Company

  80 Copy quote

• Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being.

  Rollo May

  Creativity, Something New, Process

  Rollo May (1994). “The Courage to Create”, p.39, W. W. Norton & Company

  5 Copy quote

• People only change when it becomes too dangerous to stay the way they are.

  Rollo May

  People, Way, Dangerous

  16 Copy quote

• One does not become fully human painlessly.

  Rollo May

  Reality, Doe, Humans

  "Existential-Phenomenological Alternatives for Psychology". Book by Ronald S. Valle, 1978.

  39 Copy quote

• Power is required for communication. To stand before an indifferent or hostile group and have one's say, or to speak honestly to a friend truths that go deep and hurt these require self-affirmation, self-assertion, and even at times aggression. ... My experience in psychotherapy convinces me that the act which requires the most courage is the simple communication, unpropelled by rage or anger, of one's deepest thoughts to another.

  Rollo May

  Hurt, Communication, Simple

  Rollo May (1998). “Power and Innocence: A Search for the Sources of Violence”, p.245, W. W. Norton & Company

  6 Copy quote

• Competitive individualism militates against the experience of community, and that lack of community is a centrally important factor in contemporaneous anxiety.

  Rollo May

  Responsibility, Community, Anxiety

  Rollo May (2015). “The Meaning of Anxiety”, p.132, W. W. Norton & Company

  6 Copy quote

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