If we admit our depression openly and freely, those around us get from it an experience of freedom rather than the depression itself.

Depression is the inability to construct a future

Freedom is man's capacity to take a hand in his own development. It is our capacity to mold ourselves.

Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. (p. 100)

Political freedom is to be cherished indeed. But there is no political freedom that is not indissolubly bound to the inner personal freedom of the individuals who make up that nation: no liberty of a nation of conformists, no free nation made up of robots.

Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.