Sheldon B. Kopp
7 quotes
Biography
Sheldon Bernard Kopp was a psychotherapist and author. Born in New York City, he worked in Washington, D.C. for 35 years and lived in Silver Spring, Maryland.
"If I reveal myself without worrying about how others will respond, then some will care, though others may not. But who can love me, if no one knows me? I must risk it, or live alone."
"Crises marked by anxiety, doubt, and despair have always been those periods of personal unrest that occur at the times when a man is sufficiently unsettled to have an opportunity for personal growth. We must always see our own feelings of uneasiness as being our chance for "making the growth choice rather than the fear choice."
"One can choose life, or choose death. Having chosen life, I must live it as it is."
"It has been a long time since I believed in Reality. I prefer the loveliness and the terror of my subjective experiences to those coldly scientific explanations which in the long run turn out to be no more real, and far less fun, than my own fantasies and musings."
"We must learn to give ourselves permission to blunder, to fail, and to make fools of ourselves every day for the rest of our lives. We do so in any case."
"We make a mistake if we ask ourselves, "Am I good enough?" or "Is it worthwhile to be me?" … Whoever heard of a baby who was inadequate or a child who did not know just exactly how to be a child? How could it not be all right for me to be me? How could it not be just right for you to be you?"
"Maintaining the illusion that I am in control is futile, lonely, and in the long run more always costly than the effort is worth."