The growing child must derive a vitalizing sense of reality from the awareness that his individual way of mastering experience (his ego synthesis) is a successful variant of a group identity and is in accord with its space-time and life plan.

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

In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.

Doubt is the brother of shame.

In America nature is autocratic, saying, "I am not arguing, I am telling you.

Hope is the enduring belief in the attainability of fervent wishes, in spite of the dark urges and rages which mark the beginning of existence. Hope is the ontogenetic basis of faith, and is nourished by the adult faith which pervades patterns of care.

Let us face it: 'deep down' nobody in his right mind can visualize his own existence without assuming that he has always lived and will live hereafter.