Man is a symbol-forming organism. He has constant need of a meaningful inner formulation of self and world in which his own actions, and even his impulses, have some kind of "fit" with the "outside" as he perceives it.

Another quote →

Source, in full

In The Development and Acquisition of Values (Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1969) p. 42. Report of a conference, May 15-17, 1968, Washington, D.C. Reported in O. W. Markley and Willis W. Harman (eds.) Changing Images of Man (Pergamon Press, 1982) ch. 1, p. 1

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Jay Lifton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.