Children love and want to be loved and they very much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom.
Erik EriksonRead
You've got to learn to accept the law of life, and face the fact that we disintegrate slowly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Acceptance of life's inevitable changes is essential for personal growth.
Erik Erikson emphasizes the importance of coming to terms with the natural progression of life, which includes aging and eventual decline. This acceptance allows individuals to navigate their lives with a clearer understanding of their mortality and the transformations that occur over time, leading to a deeper appreciation of life itself.
Themes
AcceptanceLifeChangeMortalityGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about coping with life's challenges, you might say, 'As Erik Erikson reminds us, we must learn to accept the law of life, recognizing our changes as part of our journey.'
More from Erik Erikson
All quotes →Men have always shown a dim knowledge of their better potentialities by paying homage to those purest leaders who taught the simplest and most inclusive rules for an undivided mankind.
Erik EriksonRead
Nobody likes to be found out, not even one who has made ruthless confession a part of his profession. Any autobiographer, therefore, at least between the lines, spars with his reader and potential judge.
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You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what's wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever's in them rises to the surface in free play.
Erik EriksonRead
In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.
Erik EriksonRead
Parents must not only have certain ways of guiding by prohibition and permission, they must also be able to represent to the child a deep, almost somatic conviction that there is meaning in what they are doing.
Erik EriksonRead
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