The most important things we talk about on Sundays are things to which we pay very little attention.

The destruction of the world is the last, almost desperate attempt to save myself from being crushed by it

Only in being productively active can man make sense of his life.

The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent.

When blended with sexuality, the death instinct is transformed into more harmless impulses expressed in sadism or masochism.

Respect is not fear and awe; it...[is]the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his unique individuality. Respect, thus, implies the absence of exploitation. I want the loved person to grow and unfold for his own sake, and in his own ways, and not for the purpose of serving me.

Paradoxically, the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love.