“They do not run away from non-being, but by encountering and wrestling with it, force it to produce being. They knock on silence for an answering music; they pursue meaninglessness until they can force it to mean.”

— Rollo May, The Courage to Create (1975), Ch. 4: Creativity and the Encounter, p. 93

About Rollo May

1909 – 1994

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

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

“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.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”

“There be none of Beauty's daughters with a magic like thee; and like music on the waters is thy sweet voice to me.”

“At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it.”

“I've found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”

“Warriors of the light are not perfect. Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn.”

“There is a science of intelligent living, an art of being fully human, in which we all can and ought to be creative.”