"In this view, man is an energy-convertingorganism who must exert his manipulative powers, who must damage his world in some ways, who must make it unc...












Man is an animal who has to live in a lie in order tolive at all.
More Ernest Becker quotes
"People were always ready to yield theirwills, to worship the hero, because they were not given a chancefor developing initiative, stability, and indep...
"In this view, man is an energy-converting organism who must exert his manipulative powers, who must damage his world in some ways, who must make it un...
"Today we are living the grotesque spectacle of the poisoningof the earth by the nineteenth-century hero system of unrestrainedmaterial production. Thi...
"We called one's lifestyle a vital lie, and now we can understand better why we said it was vital: it is a necessary and basic dishonesty about oneself...
"Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awarness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing. As awarness calls for types of h...