Heroes are necessary in order to enable the citizens to find their own ideals, courage and wisdom in the society. The hero carries our hopes, our aspirations, our ideals, our beliefs. In the deepest sense the hero is created by us; he or she is born collectively as our own myth. This is what makes heroism so important: it reflects our own sense of identity and from this our own heroism is molded.

One must have at least a readiness to love the other person, broadly speaking, if one is to be able to understand him.

It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.

The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt.

To say a person is a coward has no more meaning than to say he is lazy: It simply tells us that some vital potentiality is unrealized or blocked.

Consciousness is the awareness that emerges out of the dialectical tension between possibilities and limitations.

Competitive individualism militates against the experience of community, and that lack of community is a centrally important factor in contemporaneous anxiety.