Care is a state in which something does matter; care is the opposite of apathy. Care is the necessary source of eros, the source of human tenderness.

The individual human is still the creature who can wonder, who can be enchanted by a sonata, who can place symbols together to make poetry to gladden our heart, who can view a sunrise with a sense of majesty and awe.

Freedom is man's capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves.

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.

Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, this is me and the damned world can go to hell.

The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.

I learned that healing and cure are active processes in which I myself needed to participate.