46 Rollo May Quotes From The Influential Psychologist

Rollo May is famous for his book, 'Love and Will.'

Rollo is typically related to humanistic psychological science and existentialist philosophy. He was popular as a significant individual in existential psychotherapy.

Some of his best books include 'The Courage To Create', 'Love & Will', 'Man's Search For Himself' and more.

We have 46 best quotes of Rollo May throughout his career. If you like these quotes, then do also read our Alfred Adler quotes and William James quotes.
 

Find below some quotes from Rollo May, in all their glory.

1. "It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when they have lost their way."

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

2. "The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it's not without doubt but in spite of doubt."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

3. "Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is."

- Rollo May, 'Love & Will', 1969.

4. "Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love or fidelity. It is the foundation that underlies and gives reality to all other virtues and personal values."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

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

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

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

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

7. "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, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

8. "Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, this is me, and the damned world can go to hell.”

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

9. "Depression is the inability to construct a future."

- Rollo May, 'Love & Will', 1969.

10. "It requires greater courage to preserve inner freedom."

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

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

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

12. "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."

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

13. "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 May, 'Love & Will', 1969.

14. "A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence."

- Rollo May, 'The Cry For Myth', 1991.

15. "Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

Here are some quotes from Rollo May that we have collected for you.

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

- Rollo May, 'Love & Will', 1969.

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

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

18. "In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone."

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

19. "Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it."

- Rollo May, 'Homo Faber: A Report', 1957.

20. "Recall how often in human history the saint and the rebel have be the same person."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

21. "One must have at least a readiness to love the other person, broadly speaking, if one is to be able to understand him."

- Rollo May, 'Existence'.

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

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

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

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

24. "Freedom is man's capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves."

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

25. "Therapy isn't curing somebody of something; it is a means of helping a person explore himself, his life, his consciousness."

- Rollo May, 'Marriage Today: Problems, Issues, And Alternatives', 1977.

26. "We no longer have to argue that self-love is not only necessary and good but that it also is a prerequisite for loving others.

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

Here are some Rollo May anxiety quotes.

27. "Anxiety is an even better teacher than reality."

- Rollo May, 'The Meaning Of Anxiety', 1977.

28. "We are more apt to feel depressed by the perpetually smiling individual than the one who is honestly sad."

- Rollo May, 'Reminiscences Of A Friendship', 1973.

29. "Finding the center of strength within ourselves is, in the long run, the best contribution we can make to our fellow men."

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

30. "Man is the 'ethical animal' — ethical in potentiality even if, unfortunately, not in actuality."

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

31. "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."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

32. "Imagination is the outreaching of mind...the bombardment of the conscious mind with ideas, impulses, images and every sort of psychic phenomena welling up from the preconscious."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

33. "It is the capacity to 'dream dreams and see visions'."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

34. "Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one's death."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

35. "Anxiety is essential to the human condition."

- Rollo May, 'The Meaning Of Anxiety', 1977.

36. "The amazing thing about love is that it is the best way to get to know ourselves."

- Rollo May, 'Love & Will', 1969.

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

- Rollo May.

38. "We grasp more fiercely at research, statistics, and technical aids in sex when we have lost the values and meaning of love."

- Rollo May, 'Love & Will', 1969.

39. "The rebel is committed to giving a form and pattern to the world."

- Rollo May, 'Power And Innocence', 1972.

40. "The human being cannot live in a condition of emptiness for very long."

- Rollo May, 'Man's Search For Himself', 1953.

41. "Creative people are distinguished by the fact that they can live with anxiety, even though a high price may be paid in terms of insecurity, sensitivity, and defenselessness for the gift of 'divine madness,' to borrow the term used by the classical Greeks."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

42. "Artists do not run away from non-being, but by encountering and wrestling with it, force it to produce being."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

43. "Artists love to immerse themselves in chaos in order to put it into form, just as God created form out of chaos in Genesis."

- Rollo May, 'The Courage To Create', 1975.

44. "The purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free."

- Rollo May.

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

- Rollo May, 'Power And Innocence', 1972.

46. "When inward life dries up, when feeling decreases and apathy increases, when one cannot affect or even genuinely touch another person, violence flares up as a daimonic necessity for contact."

- Rollo May, 'Love & Will', 1969.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 45+ Rollo May quotes, then why not take a look at 'Man's Search For Meaning' quotes, or Sigmund Freud quotes.