The richest and fullest lives attempt to achieve an inner balance between three realms: work, love and play.

You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what's wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever's in them rises to the surface in free play.

If there is any responsibility in the cycle of life it must be that one generation owes to the next that strength by which it can come to face ultimate concerns in its own way.

When we looked at the life cycle in our 40s, we looked to old people for wisdom. At 80, though, we look at other 80-year-olds to see who got wise and who not. Lots of old people don't get wise, but you don't get wise unless you age.

The sense of identity provides the ability to experience one's self as something that has continuity and sameness, and to act accordingly.

Adolescents need freedom to choose, but not so much freedom that they cannot, in fact, make a choice.

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