Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.
Rollo MayRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Joy transcends happiness by being rooted in our true identity and worth as human beings.
This quote by Rollo May emphasizes that the ultimate aim of life is to experience joy, which is deeper and more meaningful than mere happiness. Joy arises from fulfilling our true nature and recognizing our worth and dignity, suggesting that a profound sense of identity and self-awareness is essential for true contentment.
Themes
JoyHappinessLifeIdentityWorthDignity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to emphasize the importance of self-worth.
More from Rollo May
All quotes →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
Rollo MayRead
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.
Rollo MayRead
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 MayRead
Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously.
Rollo MayRead
The poet, like the lover, is a menace on the assembly line.
Rollo MayRead
Similar quotes
Reality is not always probable, or likely.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
Patriotism in its simplest, clearest and most indubitable signification is nothing else but a means of obtaining for the rulers their ambitions and covetous desires, and for the ruled the abdication of human dignity, reason, conscience, and a slavish enthrallment to those in power.
Leo TolstoyRead
Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all men are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all men and all countries — not until then shall we, with a certain degree of justification, be able to speak of mankind as civilized.
Albert EinsteinRead
The clearest sensation that a human being has when he experiences the holy is an overpowering and overwhelming sense of creatureliness. That is, when we are in the presence of God, we are humbled and become most aware of ourselves as creatures. This is the opposite of Satan's original temptation, "You shall be as gods.
R. C. SproulRead
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
Henry David ThoreauRead
It is not that there are no certainties, it is that it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties.
Christopher HitchensRead