I
have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is
my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes
the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can
be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humour,
hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a
crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized.
If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people, as they
ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
