The human passions transform man from a mere thing into a hero, into a being that in spite of tremendous handicaps tries to make sense of life.
Love is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s own self.
There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started out with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet which fails so regularly, as love.
Man is the only animal that can be bored.
The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man.
Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.
As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask.
Love is the only way of knowledge, which in the act of union answers my quest. In the act of loving, of giving myself, in the act of penetrating the other person, I find myself, I discover myself, I discover us both, I discover man.
Most people die before they are fully born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies.
Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self.
Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an ordination of character which determines the relatedness of the person to the whole world as a whole, not toward one object of love.
The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.
A dream is a microscope through which we look at the hidden occurrences in our soul.
Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.
Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.
Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.
Free man is by necessity insecure, thinking man by necessity uncertain.
Integrity simply means not violating one’s own identity.
Mother’s love is bliss, is peace, it need not be acquired, it need not be deserved. If it is there, it is like a blessing; if it is not there it is as if all the beauty had gone out of life.
An illusion shared by everyone becomes a reality.