Erik H. Erikson

“The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.”

“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”

“Adolescents need freedom to choose, but not so much freedom that they cannot, in fact, make a choice.”

“Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.”

“Life doesn't make any sense without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for us all.”

“Doubt is the brother of shame.”

“A man's conflicts represent what he 'really' is.”

“Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive.”

“In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.”

“The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.”

“You are what you survive.”

“There is in every child at every stage a new miracle of vigorous unfolding.”

“The sense of identity provides the ability to experience one's self as something that has continuity and sameness, and to act accordingly.”

“Babies control and bring up their families as much as they are controlled by them; in fact, the family brings up baby by being brought up by him.”

“The richest and fullest lives attempt to achieve an inner balance between three realms: work, love and play.”