Each person's only hope for improving his lot rests on recognizing the true nature of his or her basic personality, surrendering to it, and becoming who he or she really is.

For each of us, the only hope resides in his own efforts, in completing his own story, not in the other's interpretation. (63)

Love is more than simply being open to experiencing the anguish of another person's suffering. It is the willingness to live with the helpless knowing that we can do nothing to save the other from his pain. (23)

It is not possible to know how much is just enough, until we have experienced how much is more than enough. (64)

And so, it is not astonishing that, though the patient enters therapy insisting that he wants to change, more often than not, what he really wants is to remain the same and to get the therapist to make him feel better. (4)

The unlived life isn't worth examining.

He may only get to keep that which he is willing to let go of.