Rollo May Quotes

For of course one is never safe when in love. Growth is demanding and may seem dangerous, for there is loss as well as gain in growth. But why go on living if one has ceased to grow? And what more demanding atmosphere for growth than love in any form, than any relationship which can call out and requires of us our most secret and deepest selves?

Staying vulnerable is a risk we have to take if we want to experience connection.

Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable.

I think love is a huge factor in fiction and in real life. Is there a risk? Always. In fiction and in life.

Relationships in general make people a bit nervous. It's about trust. Do I trust you enough to go there?

It's always a leap of faith when you get involved with somebody.

But risk is just part of relationships. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

What's the use of falling in love if you both remain inertly as you were?

A handwritten letter carries a lot of risk. It's a one-sided conversation that reveals the truth of the writer. Furthermore, the writer is not there to see the reaction of the person he writes to, so there's a great unknown to the process that requires a leap of faith. The writer has to choose the right words to express his sentences, and then, once he has sealed the envelope, he has to place those thoughts in the hands of someone else, trusting that the feelings will be delivered, and that the recipient will understand the writer's intent. How childish to think that could be easy.

To love is to be vulnerable.

In love, self-love is always at risk.

In this world, there was nothing scarier than trusting someone. But there was also nothing more rewarding.

It can be so terrifying to open yourself up to true love. That love can be with your mate, with your child, with yourself, because we are ultimately such vulnerable little creatures in this world.

Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable. We cannot know at the outset how the relationship will affect us.

When you stop putting yourself on the line, and you don't touch your own heart, how do you expect to touch other people?

There is no intimacy without vulnerability. Yet another powerful example of vulnerability as courage.

The best thing is being really close. The worst thing is being really close.

In a relationship you have to open yourself up.

Love is a really scary thing, and you never know what's going to happen. It's one of the most beautiful things in life, but it's one of the most terrifying. It's worth the fear because you have more knowledge, experience, you learn from people, and you have memories.

Falling in love, romance, matters of the heart - when you fall in love, on some biochemical level you know there is a chance it won't work out. It's ingrained in us that if you take such an enormous risk on someone with your heart that it might not pay off. I gamble all my chips and I might actually lose everything.

You give up your narcissism, your egotism. That's how you achieve chemistry.

We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy.

Yes, women, and men, have to be open to love, because if we're not open then there's no way for us to find happiness. But you can be open to it and still have no control over when it's going to happen.

Love dies only when growth stops.

When trust works out right, it can be absolutely magical.