Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.
Rollo MayRead
A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.
Interpretation
Myths help us understand and find meaning in an otherwise chaotic world.
In this quote, Rollo May expresses the idea that myths serve as crucial narratives that provide order and meaning to human life. In a world filled with confusion and senselessness, these myths act as tools that help individuals and cultures derive significance from their experiences and existence, thereby giving a sense of purpose and understanding.
In practice
During a discussion about literature, you might reference this quote to highlight the importance of storytelling.
Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.
To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive - to grief, sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment, and an intensity of consciousness we did not know was possible before
Terrorism and the whole drug scene are vivid examples of the fact that what persons abhor most of all in life is the possibility that they will not matter.
Humor is the healthy way of feeling "distance" between one's self and the problem, a way of standing off and looking at one's problem with perspective.
Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously.
The poet, like the lover, is a menace on the assembly line.
Often the people most concerned about others going to hell when they die seem less concerned with the hells on earth right now, while the people most concerned with the hells on earth right now seem the least concerned about hell after death.
The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.
At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way - an agreement that holds through our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.
Humanity needs justice, peace and love and we can have this only by returning with our hearts towards God who is the source of all this.
As hypocrisy is said to be the highest compliment to virtue, the art of lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth.
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