The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.

If one sees the personality not as an apparatus that is essentially constructed by the time childhood is over, but as always in its essence developing, then life at 25 or 30 or at the gateway to middle age will stimulate its own intrigue, surprise, and exhilaration of discovery.

Life doesn't make any sense without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for us all.

Personality, too, is destiny.

Children cannot be fooled by empty praise and condescending encouragement. They may have to accept artificial bolstering of their self-esteem in lieu of something better, but what I call their accruing ego identity gains real strength only from wholehearted and consistent recognition of real accomplishment, that is, achievement that has meaning in their culture.

You can actively flee, then, and you can actively stay put.

Do not mistake a child for his symptom.