The Art of Being

That we want to live, that we like to live, are facts that require no explanation. But if we ask how we want to live—what we seek from life, what makes life meaningful for us—then indeed we deal with questions

What is the goal of living? What is life’s meaning for man?

But if I overeat out of greed, depression, or anxiety, my eating is irrational; it harms, and does not further me physiologically or mentally. This holds true for all consumption, which is rooted in greed and has an obsessional character

The attempt to possess (“have”) human beings necessarily leads to the development of sadism, one of the ugliest and most perverted of passions.

The more a person has, the less is he attracted to making active efforts.

Unless I am able to analyze the unconscious aspects of the society in which I live, I cannot know who I am, because I don’t know which part of me is not me.

present-day industrial society is centered around the principle of selfishness, having and consuming, and not on principles of love and respect for life, as it preaches.

At the moment when one discovers the narcissistic components of one’s friendliness or the sadistic elements of one’s helpfulness, the shock may be so intense that for a moment or a day one feels oneself to be an utterly worthless creature, of whom nothing good could be said.

when we believe ourselves to be nothing but kind and helpful; that we become aware of our sadism, when we believe that we want to do for others only what is good for them

Freud’s basic assumption was that all “irrational” phenomena, such as the need for a strong authority, inordinate ambition, avarice, sadism, masochism were rooted in the conditions of early childhood