Religion has everything on its side: revelation, prophecies, government protection, the highest dignity and eminence. . . and more than this, the invaluable prerogative of being allowed to imprint its doctrines on the mind at a tender age of childhood, whereby they become almost innate ideas.

Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you'll always find despair.

...the more unlived your life, the greater your death anxiety. The more you fail to experience your life fully, the more you will fear death.

If we climb high enough, we will reach a height from which tragedy ceases to look tragic.

The path to decision may be hard because it leads into the territory of both finiteness and groundlessness—domains soaked in anxiety.

Life as a therapist is a life of service in which we daily transcend our personal wishes and turn our gaze toward the needs and growth of the other. We take pleasure not only in the growth of our patient but also in the ripple effect—the salutary influence our patients have upon those whom they touch in life.

One thing I feel clear about is that it's important not to let your life live you. Otherwise, you end up at forty feeling you haven't really lived. What have I learned? Perhaps to live now, so that at fifty I won't look back upon my forties with regret.