« What does one being give to another? He gives of himself, of what he has most precious, he gives of his life. This does not necessarily mean that he sacrifices his life for others - but that he gives of what is alive in him; he gives of his joy, his interest, his understanding, his knowledge, his mood, his sadness - in short, of all that expresses and manifests what lives in him. By giving of his life in this way, he enriches the other, he enhances the sense of vitality at the same time as he enhances his own. He does not give with the intention of receiving, for the gift constitutes as such an exquisite joy. But by giving, he cannot prevent the re-edging on himself what he engenders in the life of the other - by giving truly, he cannot avoid receiving what is given to him in return. As soon as one gives, the other also becomes a donor, and both participate in the joy of what they have fathered to life. In the gift, something takes shape, and the two people involved are grateful for the life that is born for both of them. Specifically, as far as love is concerned, this means: love is a power that produces love; impotence is the inability to produce love. »

« Yet many psychiatrists and psychologists reject the idea that society as a whole could be sick. They maintain that the problem of mental health in society concerns only a minority of "inadequate" individuals, not the culture itself, which should be adapted to individuals. »

« Lorenz's neo-instinctivism may owe his success not to the strength of his arguments, but to the fact that the spirits were willing to accept them. Frightened people, who felt powerless to change the current that leads to destructiveness, could only welcome a theory that violence is rooted in our animal nature, in an uncontrollable impulse of aggression, a theory that claims, as Lorenz says, that the best thing to do is to understand the law of evolution that explains the power of this impulse. This theory of innate aggression easily becomes an ideology that helps to calm the fear of the future and rationalize the feeling of helplessness. »