Rollo May — Quote from The Courage to Create
“The human dilemma is that which arises out of a man's capacity to experience himself as both subject and object at the same time.”
The Courage to Create (1975)
Concepts: authenticity, alienation, meaning
Resonant Quotes
- “I am a sick man... I am a wicked man. An unattractive man. I think my liver h...” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground Dostoevsky's narrator perfectly exemplifies May's dilemma by simultaneously experiencing himself as the self-aware ob...
- “Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder why, why, why? ...” — Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle Vonnegut's verse perfectly illustrates May's dilemma — while animals simply act, humans are cursed with the reflexive...
- “The most common form of despair is not being who you are.” — Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death May's subject-object split illuminates the existential foundation of Kierkegaard's despair—the painful self-awareness...
- “Solitude is that human situation in which I keep myself company. Loneliness c...” — Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind Arendt's 'two-in-one' structure of solitude directly exemplifies May's subject-object duality as the defining feature...
- “If I am what I have and if what I have is lost, who then am I?” — Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? Both quotes illuminate the fundamental existential tension between our self-conception and our capacity for self-alie...
- “There are no facts, only interpretations.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Notebooks May's subject-object dialectic provides the psychological foundation for Nietzsche's interpretive philosophy, explain...
- “There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it can...” — Franz Kafka, The Zuerau Aphorisms Kafka's paradox that truth-seekers must become lies directly exemplifies May's subject-object dilemma—the impossibili...
- “I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happeni...” — Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis Kafka's incomprehensible inner experience perfectly exemplifies May's subject-object split—the inability to explain o...