Freedom does not come automatically; it is achieved. And it is not gained in a single bound; it must be achieved each day.

Every act of genuine creativity means achieving a higher level of self-awareness and personal freedom.

Ecstasy is the accurate term for the intensity of consciousness that occurs in the creative act.

It is well to remind ourselves that anxiety signifies a conflict, and so long as a conflict is going on, a constructive solution is possible.

Finding the center of strength within ourselves is in the long run the best contribution we can make to our fellow men. ... One person with indigenous inner strength exercises a great calming effect on panic among people around him. This is what our society needs - not new ideas and inventions; important as these are, and not geniuses and supermen, but persons who can be, that is, persons who have a center of strength within themselves.

Inner sense of worth that comes with being in love does not seem to depend essentially on whether the love is returned or not.

Dogmatism of all kinds--scientific, economic, moral, as well as political--are threatened by the creative freedom of the artist. This is necessarily and inevitably so. We cannot escape our anxiety over the fact that the artists together with creative persons of all sorts, are the possible destroyer of our nicely ordered systems. (p. 76)