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 Copy Share Image
“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. This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression and with all this yet… — Ernest Becker Copy Share
“the characteristics the modern mind prides itself on are precisely those of madness.” — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
“When we are young we are often puzzled by the fact that each person we admire seems to have a different version of what… — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
Relationship is thus always slavery of a kind, which leaves a residue of guilt. — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
“neurosis as a problem of character and have seen that it can be approached in two ways: as a problem of too much narrowness… — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
When we understand that man is the only animal who must create meaning, who must open a wedge into neutral nature, we already understand… — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
What is the ideal for mental health, then? A lived, compelling illusion that does not lie about life, death, and reality; one honest enough… — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
“This is one of the reasons for bigotry and censorship of all kinds over personal morality: people fear that the standard morality will be… — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
“Civilized" society is a hopeful belief and protest that science, money and goods make man count for more than any other animal. In this… — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
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… — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
“Understanding this, Rank could take a great step beyond Freud. Freud thought that modern man’s moral dependence on another was a result of the… — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
“The world of human aspiration is largely fictitious and if we do not understand this we understand nothing about man.” — Ernest Becker Copy Share Image
