Rollo May

Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.

It may sound surprising when I say, on the basis of my own clinical practice as well as that of my psychological and psychiatric colleagues, that the chief problem of people in the middle decade of the twentieth century is emptiness.

Problems are the outward signs of unused inner possibilities.

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.

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.

Loneliness is such an omnipotent and painful threat to many persons that they have little conception of the positive values of solitude and even, at times, are frightened at the prospect of being alone.

Social acceptance, 'being liked,' has so much power because it holds the feelings of loneliness at bay.

In the utopian aim of removing all power and aggression from human behavior, we run the risk of removing self-assertion, self-affirmation, and even the power to be.

It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.

Care is a state in which something does matter; it is the source of human tenderness.

Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.

Human dignity is based upon freedom, and freedom upon human dignity. The one presupposes the other.