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

We must always base our commitment in the center of our own being, or else no commitment will be ultimately authentic.

It is interesting to note how many of the great scientific discoveries begin as myths.

Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.

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.

Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable. We cannot know at the outset how the relationship will affect us. Like a chemical mixture, if one of us is changed, both of us will be. Will we grow in self-actualization, or will it destroy us? The one thing we can be certain of is that if we let ourselves fully into the relationship for good or evil, we will not come out unaffected.

Recall how often in human history the saint and the rebel have be the same person. (p. 35)