The future

Also, we must rea­li­ze that only the future is in prin­ci­ple unknown and unkno­wa­ble, which means all habits, defen­ses and coping mecha­nisms are doubtful and ambi­guous sin­ce they are based on past expe­ri­ence. Only the fle­xi­bly crea­ti­ve per­son can real­ly mana­ge the future, only the one who can face novel­ty with con­fi­dence and wit­hout fear. I am con­vin­ced that much of what we now call psy­cho­lo­gy is the stu­dy of tricks we use to avo­id the anxie­ty of abso­lu­te novel­ty by making belie­ve the future will be like the past.

Abra­ham Maslow: Towards a Psy­cho­lo­gy of Being, 1968