“You can live without a father who accepts you, but you cannot live without a world that makes some sense to you.”

— Rollo May, The Courage to Create, 1975

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.”

“Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life.”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.”

“We live in a country where the people own the Government and not in a country where the Government owns the people.”