Explore Quotes by Erik Erikson

Adolescents need freedom to choose, but not so much freedom that they cannot, in fact, make a choice.

The American feels too rich in his opportunities for free expression that he often no longer knows what he is free from. Neither does he know where he is not free; he does not recognize his native autocrats when he sees them.

Babies control and bring up their families as much as they are controlled by them; in fact ... the family brings up baby by being brought up by him.

In the evaluation of the dominant moods of any historical period it is important to hold fast to the fact that there are always islands of self-sufficient order — on farms and in castles, in homes, studies, and cloisters — where sensible people manage to live relatively lusty and decent lives: as moral as they must be, as free as they may be, and as masterly as they can be. If we only knew it, this elusive arrangement is happiness.

The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.

Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. Others have called this deepest quality confidence, and I have referred to trust as the earliest positive psychosocial attitude, but if life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.

Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.