Home / Quotes / Quote by Thomas L. Dumm

Quote by Thomas L. Dumm

“At some point just about all of us experience loneliness. In a sense, it is what it means to be a sentient animal, to have an experience of separation from others.”

Quote by Thomas L. Dumm

Author

Thomas L. Dumm is an American author born on November 12, 1954. His works primarily focus on the fields of psychology, philosophy, and religion, known for their insightful and accessible writing style. more

You May Also Like

“I'm pretty sure my dog, Pip, gets lonely when there is no one to be with him. But we humans can end up with a gnawing worry about that separation possibly becoming a permanent condition.”

Humans Ends Worry Conditions Dog Becoming Lonely Separation Permanent My Dog

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“There are degrees of loneliness, ways in which the experience of loneliness deepens, becomes something like what we might call a way of life. This way of life is both what is most damaging to us as a culture, and, paradoxically, contributes to its richness. It may in the end be our lasting contribution to the life of our planet.”

Way May Ends Might Life Is Culture Loneliness Planets Degrees Contribution Lasting Our Planet Richness

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“Usually, we think that "good" loneliness is what we call "solitude," the choice of some alone-time. But I want to press on with the negative dimension, to look at ways in which a fundamental sense of being separated from others shapes who we are and why.”

Thinking Way Want Looks Choices Loneliness Shapes Solitude Negative Fundamentals Presses Who We Are Dimensions Alone Time

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“We can never leave loneliness behind completely - it is part of what forms us.”

Form Behinds Loneliness

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“One of the reasons I always come back to representations of loneliness in plays, films, and literature is that they give us specific examples of the powerful hold that it has on us, and yet, paradoxically, by representing what can't really be represented, so to speak, they give us ways of going forward even as we fall apart.”

Way Giving Reason Play Film Fall Literature Speak Powerful Loneliness Example Representation Falling Apart Representing

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“I worry that we don't currently have a democracy in the United States. Instead we have what [political philosopher] Sheldon Wolin has recently labeled a sort of inverted totalitarianism.”

States Political United Worry United States Democracy Philosopher Totalitarianism Inverted

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“Worldwide, the twentieth century has seen the rise of extraordinary concentrations of economic and political power - evoking the people as the source of power while simultaneously privatizing its most meaningful exercise. Democracy always seems to be at least slightly elusive under such conditions.”

People Seems Political Democracy Economic Conditions Century Source Exercise Extraordinary Meaningful Concentration Twentieth Century Elusive Political Power Most Meaningful

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“None of us is perfect, but the point of our writing is to try to become better, to learn something that we may not have already realized, about ourselves, about the world we inhabit.”

World Writing Trying May Perfect

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“In one of my favorite anecdotes about Foucault, someone asks him why he writes books. He responds by saying something like "When I begin to write a book, I do not know how it will come out, what it will say in the end. If I already did, I wouldn't need to write it."”

Ifs Knows Needs Writing Book Ends Asks Know How My Favorite Anecdotes

Author:Thomas L. Dumm

“Of course, each of us has to write our own book, live our own life.”

Writing Book Courses

Author:Thomas L. Dumm