In the religious myths, the creative will appears personified in God, and man already feels himself guilty when he assumes himself to be like God, that is, to ascribe this will to himself. In the heroic myths on the contrary, man appears as himself, creative and guilt for his suffering and fall is ascribed to God, that is, to his own will. Both are only extreme reaction phenomena of man wavering between his God likeness and his nothingness, whose will is awakened to the knowledge of its power and whose consciousness is aroused to terror before it.

— Otto Rank

It seems that life, in order to maintain itself, must revolt every so often against man's ceaseless attempts to master its irrational forces with his mind.

— Otto Rank

Man works primarily for his own self-respect and not for others or for profit. . . The person who is working for the sake of his own satisfaction the money he gets in return serves merely as fuel that is as a symbol of reward and recognition in the last analysis of acceptance by one's fellowmen.

— Otto Rank

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

— Otto Rank