“Each pursues his private interest and only his private interest; and thereby serves the private interests of all, the general interest, without willing it or knowing it. The real point is not that each individual's pursuit of his private interest promotes the totality of private interests, the general interest. One could just as well deduce from this abstract phrase that each individual reciprocally blocks the assertion of the others' interests, so that, instead of a general affirmation, this war of all against all produces a general negation.” WellsWarRealIndividualInterestKnowingProduceWillingPursuitPursueBlockPhrasesAbstractAffirmationAssertionTotalityNegation Author:Karl Marx
“Communism... is the genuine resolution of the antagonism between man and nature and between man and man; it is the true resolution of the conflict between existence and essence, objectification and self-affirmation, freedom and necessity, individual and species. It is the riddle of history solved and knows itself as the solution.” KnowsMenSelfIndividualExistenceConflictSolutionsEssenceSpeciesGenuineCommunismResolutionAffirmationRiddleAntagonismObjectificationMan And NatureSelf Affirmation Book:Marx: Selected Writings Source: Marx: Selected Writings
“Individualism is the self-affirmation of the individual self as individual self without regard to its participation in its world. As such it is the opposite of collectivism, the self affirmation of the self as part of a larger whole without regard to its character as an individual self.” WorldSelfWholeCharacterIndividualOppositesRegardIndividualismAffirmationParticipationCollectivismSelf Affirmation Book:Writings on religion Source: Writings on religion
“In a man like Friedrich von Schlegel the courage to be as an individual self produced complete neglect of participation, but it also produced, in reaction to the emptiness of this self-affirmation, the desire to return to a collective. Schlegel, and with him many extreme individualists in the last hundred years, became Roman Catholics. The courage to be as oneself broke down, and one turned to an institutional embodiment of the courage to be as a part.” MenYearsSelfLastsDesireIndividualReturnHundredDown AndCatholicOneselfExtremesReactionsBrokeEmptinessCollectivesNeglectAffirmationParticipationEmbodimentRoman CatholicSelf Affirmation Author:Paul Tillich
“The anxiety of fate is conquered by the self-affirmation of the individual as an infinitely significant microcosmic representation of the universe .” SelfUniverseIndividualFateAnxietySignificantRepresentationAffirmationSelf Affirmation Book:The Courage To Be Source: The Courage To Be
“Love is the bridge that leads from the I sense to the We, and there is a paradox about personal love. Love of another individual opens a new relation between the personality and the world. The lover responds in a new way to nature and may even write poetry. Love is affirmation; it motivates the yes responses and the sense of wider communication. Love casts out fear, and in the security of this togetherness we find contentment, courage. We no longer fear the age-old haunting questions: "Who am I?" "Why am I?" "Where am I going?" - and having cast out fear, we can be honest and charitable.” WorldWayWritingMayAgeIndividualLove IsHonestSecurityCommunicationPersonalityLoversRelationResponseCastsBeing HonestBridgesContentmentParadoxNew WaysAffirmationHauntingTogethernessLove PoetryCharitablePersonal Love Author:Carson McCullers
“Of course, even the general designation 'religious' includes various basic ideas or convictions, for example, the indestructibility of the soul, the eternity of its existence, the existence of a higher being, etc. But all these ideas, regardless of how convincing they may be for the individual, are submitted to the critical examination of this individual and hence to a fluctuating affirmation or negation until emotional divination or knowledge assumes the binding force of apodictic faith.” MayIdeasSoulCoursesIndividualForceReligiousExistenceExampleEmotionalHigherEternityAssumingVariousConvictionCriticalEtcAffirmationConvincingExaminationBindingNegationDesignation Author:Adolf Hitler
“Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncracy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaptation to the universal conditions of existence coupled with the greatest possible freedom for self-determination.” SelfFacesIndividualExistenceSuccessfulConditionsPersonalityDeterminationUniversalAbsolutesIndividualitySupremeRealizationSelf DeterminationAffirmationAdaptationInnate Author:Carl Jung