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Ernest Becker Quotes

The irony of man’s condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it, and so we must shrink from being fully alive Picture Quote #1

What does it mean to be a self-conscious animal? The idea is ludicrous, if it is not monstrous. It means to know that one is food for worms Picture Quote #1

In seeking to avoid evil, humanity is responsible for bringing more evil into the world than organisms could ever do merely by exercising their digestive tracts. It is our ingenuity, rather than our animal nature, that has given our fellow creatures such a bitter earthly fate Picture Quote #1

When you confuse personal love and cosmic heroism you are bound to fail in both spheres. The impossibility of the heroism undermines the love, even if it is real. This double failure is what produces the sense of utter despair that we see in modern man... Love, then, is seen a religious problem Picture Quote #1

Ecological devastation is the excrement, so to speak, of man’s power worship Picture Quote #1

Horror alone brings peace of mind Picture Quote #1

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Men use one another to assure their personal victory over death Picture Quote #1

All power is in essence power to deny mortality Picture Quote #1

Each society is a hero system which promises victory over evil and death Picture Quote #1

Love is the problem of an animal Picture Quote #1

Better guilt than the terrible burden of freedom and responsibility Picture Quote #1

People create the reality they need in order to discover themselves Picture Quote #1

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Relationship is thus always slavery of a kind, which leaves a residue of guilt Picture Quote #1

The road to creativity passes Picture Quote #1

Guilt results from unused life, from the unlived in us Picture Quote #1

We are gods with anuses Picture Quote #1

Obviously, all religions fall far short of their own ideals Picture Quote #1

War is a sociological safety valve that cleverly diverts popular hatred for the ruling classes into a happy occasion to mutilate or kill foreign enemies Picture Quote #1

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Once you base your whole life striving on a desperate lie, and try to implement that lie, you instrument your own undoing Picture Quote #1

Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing Picture Quote #1

Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being Picture Quote #1

If the love object is divine perfection, then one’s own self is elevated by joining one’s destiny to it... All our guilt, fear, and even our mortality itself can be purged in a perfect consummation with perfection itself Picture Quote #1

The key to the creative type is that he is separated out of the common pool of shared meanings. There is something in his life experience that makes him take in the world as a problem; as a result he has to make personal sense out of it Picture Quote #1

The artist takes in the world, but instead of being oppressed by it, he reworks it in his own personality and recreates it in the work of art Picture Quote #1

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The greatest cause of evil included all human motives in one giant paradox. Good and bad were so inextricably mixed that we couldn’t make them out; bad seemed to lead to good, and good motives led to bad. The paradox is that evil comes from man’s urge to heroic victory over evil Picture Quote #1

We might say that psychoanalysis revealed to us the complex penalties of denying the truth of man’s condition, what we might call the costs of pretending not to be mad Picture Quote #1

When we understand that man is the only animal who must create meaning, who must open a wedge into neutral nature, we already understand the essence of love. Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being Picture Quote #1

It is fateful and ironic how the lie we need in order to live dooms us to a life that is never really ours Picture Quote #1

I think that taking life seriously means something such as this: that whatever man does on this planet has to be done in the lived truth of the terror of creation, of the grotesque, of the rumble of panic underneath everything. Otherwise it is false. Whatever is achieved must be achieved with the full exercise of passion, of vision, of pain, of fear, and of sorrow. How do we know, that our part of the meaning of the universe might not be a rhythm in sorrow? Picture Quote #1

To live is to play at the meaning of life... The upshot of this... is that it teaches us once and for all that childlike foolishness is the calling of mature men Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

The irony of man’s condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it, and so we must shrink from being fully alive. (Ernest Becker Quotes) What does it mean to be a self-conscious animal? The idea is ludicrous, if it is not monstrous. It means to know that one is food for worms. (Ernest Becker Quotes) In seeking to avoid evil, humanity is responsible for bringing more evil into the world than organisms could ever do merely by exercising their digestive tracts. It is our ingenuity, rather than our animal nature, that has given our fellow creatures such a bitter earthly fate (Ernest Becker Quotes) When you confuse personal love and cosmic heroism you are bound to fail in both spheres. The impossibility of the heroism undermines the love, even if it is real. This double failure is what produces the sense of utter despair that we see in modern man... Love, then, is seen a religious problem (Ernest Becker Quotes) Ecological devastation is the excrement, so to speak, of man’s power worship (Ernest Becker Quotes) Horror alone brings peace of mind (Ernest Becker Quotes) Men use one another to assure their personal victory over death (Ernest Becker Quotes) All power is in essence power to deny mortality (Ernest Becker Quotes) Each society is a hero system which promises victory over evil and death (Ernest Becker Quotes) Love is the problem of an animal (Ernest Becker Quotes) Better guilt than the terrible burden of freedom and responsibility (Ernest Becker Quotes) People create the reality they need in order to discover themselves (Ernest Becker Quotes) Relationship is thus always slavery of a kind, which leaves a residue of guilt (Ernest Becker Quotes) The road to creativity passes (Ernest Becker Quotes) Guilt results from unused life, from the unlived in us (Ernest Becker Quotes) We are gods with anuses (Ernest Becker Quotes) Obviously, all religions fall far short of their own ideals (Ernest Becker Quotes) War is a sociological safety valve that cleverly diverts popular hatred for the ruling classes into a happy occasion to mutilate or kill foreign enemies (Ernest Becker Quotes) Once you base your whole life striving on a desperate lie, and try to implement that lie, you instrument your own undoing (Ernest Becker Quotes) Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing (Ernest Becker Quotes) Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being (Ernest Becker Quotes) If the love object is divine perfection, then one’s own self is elevated by joining one’s destiny to it... All our guilt, fear, and even our mortality itself can be purged in a perfect consummation with perfection itself (Ernest Becker Quotes) The key to the creative type is that he is separated out of the common pool of shared meanings. There is something in his life experience that makes him take in the world as a problem; as a result he has to make personal sense out of it (Ernest Becker Quotes) The artist takes in the world, but instead of being oppressed by it, he reworks it in his own personality and recreates it in the work of art (Ernest Becker Quotes) The greatest cause of evil included all human motives in one giant paradox. Good and bad were so inextricably mixed that we couldn’t make them out; bad seemed to lead to good, and good motives led to bad. The paradox is that evil comes from man’s urge to heroic victory over evil (Ernest Becker Quotes) We might say that psychoanalysis revealed to us the complex penalties of denying the truth of man’s condition, what we might call the costs of pretending not to be mad (Ernest Becker Quotes) When we understand that man is the only animal who must create meaning, who must open a wedge into neutral nature, we already understand the essence of love. Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being (Ernest Becker Quotes) It is fateful and ironic how the lie we need in order to live dooms us to a life that is never really ours (Ernest Becker Quotes) I think that taking life seriously means something such as this: that whatever man does on this planet has to be done in the lived truth of the terror of creation, of the grotesque, of the rumble of panic underneath everything. Otherwise it is false. Whatever is achieved must be achieved with the full exercise of passion, of vision, of pain, of fear, and of sorrow. How do we know, that our part of the meaning of the universe might not be a rhythm in sorrow? (Ernest Becker Quotes) To live is to play at the meaning of life... The upshot of this... is that it teaches us once and for all that childlike foolishness is the calling of mature men (Ernest Becker Quotes)

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