Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.
Rollo MayRead
Every being has the need not only to be but to affirm his own being. This is especially significant for the human organism, for it is gifted with, or condemned to, self-consciousness.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the intrinsic human desire for self-affirmation and the significance of self-consciousness in defining one's existence.
Rollo May's quote explores the fundamental human need to not just exist, but to actively affirm and understand one's own identity. It highlights the unique position of humans, who possess self-consciousness, which compels them to seek validation and meaning in their lives, pushing them to engage in a continuous journey of self-discovery and affirmation.
In practice
In a personal development seminar to emphasize the importance of self-acceptance.
Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.
To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive - to grief, sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment, and an intensity of consciousness we did not know was possible before
Terrorism and the whole drug scene are vivid examples of the fact that what persons abhor most of all in life is the possibility that they will not matter.
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.
Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously.
The poet, like the lover, is a menace on the assembly line.
When the prophet, a complacent fat man, Arrived at the mountain-top He cried: "Woe to my knowledge! I intended to see good white lands And bad black lands— But the scene is grey.
The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth there will be the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known. Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world.
And would'st thou evil for his good repay?
Dear young people, listen within: Christ is knocking at the door of your heart.
Oh, God — the lives people try to lead. Oh, God — what a world they try to lead them in.
Civilisation is partly about restraining the male of the species from engaging in the violence of the hunter-gatherer period. But it doesn't take an awful lot to unleash it.
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