19 quotes
You are "free" only in one sense: free from education in governing your life yourself, free from self-criticism.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
Every physician, shoemaker, mechanic or educator must know his shortcomings if he is to do his work and make his living.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
The great man, then, knows when and in what he is a little man.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
You are afraid of life, Little Man, deadly afraid. You will murder it in the belief of doing it for the sake of "socialism," or "the state," or "national honor," or "the glory of God."
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
It is on your thinking and your actions that the future of humanity depends.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
You are Great, Little Man, when you are not small and petty.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
The Little Man does not know that he is little, and he is afraid of knowing it. He covers up his smallness and narrowness with illusions of strength and greatness, of others' strength and greatness.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
The Little Man does not want to hear the truth about himself. He does not want the great responsibility which is his. He wants to remain a Little Man.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
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...
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
They call you "Little Man", "Common Man"; they say a new era has begun, the "Era of the Common Man".
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
You dare not think that you ever might experience your self differently: free instead of cowed; open instead of tactical; loving openly instead of like a thief in the night.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
The great man, at one time, also was a very little man, but he developed one important ability: he learned to see where he was small in his thinking, and actions.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
Your liberators tell you that that your suppressors are Wilhelm, Nikolaus, Pope Gregory the Twenty Eighth, Morgan, Krupp or Ford. And your "liberators" are called Mussolini, Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin.
I tell you: "Only you yourself can be your liberator!"
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
You worship the Christ child. The Christ child was born of a mother who had no marriage certificate. What you worship in the Christ child, you poor little marriage-ridden man, is your own yearning for sexual freedom!
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
The kindly individual believes that all people are kindly and act accordingly. The plague individual believes that all people lie, swindle, steal and crave power. Clearly, then, the living is at a disadvantage and in danger.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
You beg for happiness in life, but security is more important to you, even if it costs you your spine or your life. Your life will be good and secure when aliveness will mean more to you than security; love more than money; your freedom more than party line or public opinion; when your thinking will be in harmony with your feelings; when the teachers of your children will be better paid than the politicians; when you will have more respect for the love between man and woman than for a marriage license.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
You will no longer believe that you "don't count." You will know and advocate your knowledge that you are the bearer of human society. Don't run away. Don't be afraid. It is not so terrible to be the responsible bearer of human society.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
I have never heard you complain: "You promote me to be the future master of myself and the world, but you don't tell me how one is to be the master of oneself, and you don't tell me the mistakes in my thinking and my actions."
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
You let men in power assume power "for the Little Man". But you yourself remain silent. You give men in power or impotent people with evil intentions the power to represent you. Only too late do you realize that again and again you are being defrauded.
Listen, Little Man! (1948)