Erik Erikson Quotes

Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.

All of us every single year, we're a different person. I don't think we're the same person all our lives.

To change what you get you must change who you are.

Ellis's understanding of himself and the world around him certainly develops because of his adventures, and part of that development comes through recognizing other people for what they are.

Whoever undertakes to create soon finds himself engaged in creating himself.

We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.

There are people who are uncanny, who are finished products at a young age. I wasn't, thank God.

Without being aware, I think I was being indoctrinated into what was called Vitalism, the idea that what makes life worth living, the good life, consists of accepting challenges, solving problems, discovery, personal growth, personal change.

No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls.

I've been allowed to develop my own character, which I'm still working on.

I'm learning all the time. I'm evolving all the time as a human being. I'm getting better, I hope, in all of the important ways.

As a human being, I'm work in process.

Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.

I've etched out who I am through myriad haircut attempts, outfit attempts, beauty attempts, diet attempts. It's been an evolution.

Some of us, for better or worse, develop very stable, consistent, and largely predictable machineries of self. But in others, the self machinery is more flexible and more open to unexpected turns.

Forging meaning is about changing yourself. Building identity is about changing the world.

They say your taste palate changes every seven years, so maybe your personality changes every five, you know?

I'm constantly reinventing myself. It's a constant thing that I do.

There is no fixed, true and real person inside of you or me, precisely because being a person necessarily implies becoming a person, being in process.

The most important task of your life is not what you do, but who you become.

I was a personality before I became a person.

The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself.

We do not necessarily improve with age: for better or worse we become more like ourselves.

Whoever undertakes to create soon finds himself engaged in creating himself. Self-transformation and the transformation of others have constituted the radical interest of our century, whether in painting, psychiatry, or political action.

A child develops individuality long before he develops taste.