Quote

MAN IS FUNDAMENTALLY AN ANIMAL. Animals, as distinct from man, are not machine-like, not sadistic their societies, within the same species, are incomparably more peaceful than those of man. The basic question, then is: What has made the animal, man, degenerate into a machine?

Wilhelm Reich

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Wilhelm Reich
Age: 60 †
Born: 1897
Born: March 24
Died: 1957
Died: November 3
Academic
Philosopher
Psychiatrist
Psychoanalyst
Sex Educator
Writer
Like
Machines
Degenerate
Animals
Degenerates
Species
Distinct
Question
Fundamentally
Animal
Societies
Within
Machine
Made
Peaceful
Incomparably
Men
Basic
Sadistic

More quotes by Wilhelm Reich

Image
Revolutionary practice in any field of human existence develops by itself if one comprehends the contradictions in every new process it consists in siding with those forces which act in the direction of progressive development.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
The elimination of individual capitalists and the replacement of private capitalism by state capitalism in Russia has not in the least altered the typical helpless and authoritarian character structure of the masses of people.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
See yourself as you really are. Listen to what none of your leaders and representatives dares tell you: You are a little, common man. Understand the double meaning of these words: little and common. Don't run. Have the courage to look at yourself!
Wilhelm Reich
Image
The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Work democracy does not wish to prevent or prohibit anything. Its only intention is the fulfilment of the biological life functions, of love, work and knowledge.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
And first and foremost, think straight, trust the quiet inner voice that tells you what to do. You hold your life in your hands, don't entrust it to anyone else, least of all to your chosen leaders. BE YOURSELF! Any number of great men have told you that.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Scientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Sexually awakened women, affirmed and recognized as such, would mean the complete collapse of the authoritarian ideology
Wilhelm Reich
Image
The suppression of natural sexual gratification leads to various kinds of substitute gratifications. Natural aggression, for example, becomes brutal sadism which then is an essential mass-psychological factor in imperialistic wars.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Only one thing matters: live a good, happy life. Do your heart's bidding, even when it leads you on paths that timid souls would avoid. Even when life is a torment, don't let it harden you.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Unless we proceed cautiously, there might well arise a few generations of mystics who conceive of the orgone metaphysically, divorced from non-living nature and who do not comprehend it from the standpoint of natural science. And it seems to me that we have more than enough mysticism as it is.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Once we open up to the flow of energy within our body, we can also open up to the flow of energy in the universe.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
It is the basic evasion of the essential which is the problem of man.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
The unity and congruity of culture and nature, work and love, morality and sexuality, longed for from time immemorial, will remain a dream as long as man continues to condemn the biological demand for natural sexual gratification.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Follow the voice of your heart, even if it leads you off the path of timid souls. Do not become hard and embittered, even if life tortures you at times. There is only one thing that counts: to live one's life well and happily.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Because you have no memory for things that happened ten or twenty years ago, you're still mouthing the same nonsense as two thousand years ago. Worse, you cling with might and main to such absurdities as 'race,' 'class,' 'nation,' and the obligation to observe a religion and repress your love.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
On all sides, life is surrounded by hostility. This puts us under an obligation.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
The few bad poems which occasionally are created during abstinence are of no great interest.
Wilhelm Reich
Image
I observe to the letter all laws that make sense but combat those that are obsolete or absurd.
Wilhelm Reich