Religion becomes a state of mind achievable in almost any activity of life, if this activity is raised to a suitable level of perfection.

The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.

People are not evil; they are schlemiels.

Expression and communication in the peak–experiences tend often to become poetic, mythical, and rhapsodic, as if this were the natural kind of language to express such states of being.

The emotional reaction in the peak experience has a special flavor of wonder, of awe, of reverence, of humility and surrender before the experience as before something great.

As one studies these preconditions, one becomes saddened by the ease with which human potentiality can be destroyed or repressed, so that a fully-human person can seem like a miracle, so improbable a happening as to be awe-inspiring. And simultaneously one is heartened by the fact that self-actualizing persons do in fact exist, that they are therefore possible, that the gauntlet of dangers can be run, that the finish line can be crossed.

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.