Better guilt than the terrible burden of freedom and responsibility.
Ernest BeckerRead
It is fateful and ironic how the lie we need in order to live dooms us to a life that is never really ours.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the lies we tell ourselves for comfort ultimately prevent us from living authentically.
Ernest Becker's quote reflects on the paradox of human existence, wherein the false narratives we create for ourselves often serve as a coping mechanism, allowing us to navigate life's challenges. However, these same lies can trap us, making it difficult to embrace our true selves and fully experience life on our own terms. This irony highlights the struggle between the need for comforting illusions and the desire for genuine authenticity.
Themes
AuthenticityLiesLifeIllusionSelf
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about personal identity in a psychology class.
More from Ernest Becker
All quotes βThe 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.
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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
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All power is in essence power to deny mortality.
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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.
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Each society is a hero system which promises victory over evil and death.
Ernest BeckerRead
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