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)

Courage is the basic virtue for everyone so long as he continues to grow, to move ahead.

If we admit our depression openly and freely, those around us get from it an experience of freedom rather than the depression itself.

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.

Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. (p. 100)

What Kierkegaard said about love is also true of creativity: every person must start at the beginning.

It is dangerous to know, but it is more dangerous not to know.