These same experiences make of the sequence of life cycles a generational cycle, irrevocably binding each generation to those that gave it life and to those for whose life it is responsible. Thus, reconciling lifelong generativity and stagnation involves the elder in a review of his or her own years of active responsibility for nurturing the next generations, and also in an integration of earlier-life experiences of caring and of self-concern in relation to previous generations.
Erik EriksonThe fact that human conscience remains partially infantile throughout life is the core of human tragedy.
Erik EriksonIt's a long haul bringing up our children to be good; you have to keep doing that โ bring them up โ and that means bringing things up with them: Asking, telling, sounding them out, sounding off yourself โ finding, through experience, your own words, your own way of putting them together. You have to learn where you stand, and make sure your kids learn [where you stand], understand why, and soon, you hope, they'll be standing there beside you, with you.
Erik Erikson