“Courage is the capacity to meet the anxiety which arises as one achieves freedom.”

— Rollo May, Man's Search for Himself (1953)

About Rollo May

1909 – 1994

American existential psychologist, author of "Love and Will" and "The Courage to Create".

“One cannot fight what one does not know.”

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

“One does not become fully human painlessly.”

“Anxiety strives to become fear, because fear can be met by courage.”

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.”

“Anytus and Melitus may kill me indeed, but hurt me they cannot.”

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”

“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having the courage to show up when you can't control the outcome.”

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”