Man may be defined as the animal that can say “I,” that can be aware of himself as a separate entity.
Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.
Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision-making which replace the principles of instincts.
Man always dies before he is fully born.
Love is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s own self.
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
Love is often nothing but a favorable exchange between two people who get the most of what they can expect, considering their value on the personality market.
Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one “object” of love.
Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called “equality.”
Just as love is an orientation which refers to all objects and is incompatible with the restriction to one object, so is reason a human faculty which must embrace the whole of the world with which man is confronted.
Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship.
It is not enough that men are not slaves; if social conditions further the existence of automatons, the result will not be love of life, but love of death.
