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Quotes by Psychologist

"You become a house where the wind blows straight through, because no one bothers the crack in the window or lock on the door, and you're the house where people come and go as they please, because you're simply too unimpressed to care. You let people in who you really shouldn't let in, and you let them walk around for a while, use your bed and use your books, and await the day when they simply get bored and leave. You're still not bothered, though you knew they shouldn't have been let in in the first place, but still you just sit there, apathetic like a beggar in the desert."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"You become a house where the wind blows straight through, because no one bothers the crack in the window or lock on the door, and you're the house where people come and go as they please, because you're simply too unimpressed to care. You let people in who you really shouldn't let in, and you let them walk around for a while, use your bed and use your books, and await the day when they simply get bored and leave. You're still not bothered, though you knew they shouldn't have been let in in the first place, but still you just sit there, apathetic like a beggar in the desert."
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"Am I making something worth while?I'm not sure.I write and I sing and I hear words from time to time about my life and choices making ways, into other lives, other hearts,but am I making something worth while?I'm not sure.There was a boy last night who I never spoke to because I was too drunk and still shy, but mostly lonely, and I couldn't find anything lightly to say,so I simply walked awaybut still wondered what he did with his lifebecause he didn't even speak to meor look at mebut still made me wonder who he wasand I walked away askingAm I making something worth while?I am not sure.I am a complicated person with a simple lifeand I am the reason for everything that ever happened to me."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"Am I making something worth while?I'm not sure.I write and I sing and I hear words from time to time about my life and choices making ways, into other lives, other hearts,but am I making something worth while?I'm not sure.There was a boy last night who I never spoke to because I was too drunk and still shy, but mostly lonely, and I couldn't find anything lightly to say,so I simply walked awaybut still wondered what he did with his lifebecause he didn't even speak to meor look at mebut still made me wonder who he wasand I walked away askingAm I making something worth while?I am not sure.I am a complicated person with a simple lifeand I am the reason for everything that ever happened to me."
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"And you might try to hide or protect yourself, or compare the different states of love,but you must not grow up, must not act wise when it comes to love.You must stay foolish and fall for every heart will beat in different ways together with yours and love is not meant to be compared, only enjoyed, and suffered, and remembered."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"And you might try to hide or protect yourself, or compare the different states of love,but you must not grow up, must not act wise when it comes to love.You must stay foolish and fall for every heart will beat in different ways together with yours and love is not meant to be compared, only enjoyed, and suffered, and remembered."
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"In spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power-almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving. Could it be that only those things are considered worthy of being learned with which one can earn money or prestige, and that love, which "only" profits the soul, but is profitless in the modern sense, is a luxury we have no right to spend energy on?"
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Erich Fromm
"In spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power-almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving. Could it be that only those things are considered worthy of being learned with which one can earn money or prestige, and that love, which "only" profits the soul, but is profitless in the modern sense, is a luxury we have no right to spend energy on?"
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"Although there are certain needs, such as hunger, thirst, sex, which are common to man, those drives which make for the differences in men's characters, like love and hatred, the lust for power and the yearning for submission, the enjoyment of sensuous pleasure and the fear of it, are all products of the social process. The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed and biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man. In other words, society has not only a suppressing function - although it has that too - but it has also a creative function."
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Erich Fromm
"Although there are certain needs, such as hunger, thirst, sex, which are common to man, those drives which make for the differences in men's characters, like love and hatred, the lust for power and the yearning for submission, the enjoyment of sensuous pleasure and the fear of it, are all products of the social process. The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed and biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man. In other words, society has not only a suppressing function - although it has that too - but it has also a creative function."
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"You read and write and sing and experience, thinking that one day these things will build the character you admire to live as. You love and lose and bleed best you can, to the extreme, hoping that one day the world will read you like the poem you want to be."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"You read and write and sing and experience, thinking that one day these things will build the character you admire to live as. You love and lose and bleed best you can, to the extreme, hoping that one day the world will read you like the poem you want to be."
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"Time flows smoother when you are with people you love."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"Time flows smoother when you are with people you love."
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"What kind of men, then, does our society need? What is the "social character" suited to twentieth century Capitalism? It needs men who co-operate smoothly in large groups; who want to consume more and more, and whose tasks are standardized and can easily be influenced and anticipated. It needs men who feel free and independent, not subject to any authority, or principle, or conscience - yet willing to be commanded, to do what is expected, to fit into the social machine without friction."
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Erich Fromm
"What kind of men, then, does our society need? What is the "social character" suited to twentieth century Capitalism? It needs men who co-operate smoothly in large groups; who want to consume more and more, and whose tasks are standardized and can easily be influenced and anticipated. It needs men who feel free and independent, not subject to any authority, or principle, or conscience - yet willing to be commanded, to do what is expected, to fit into the social machine without friction."
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"I am a complicated person with a simple life and I am the reason for everything that ever happened to me."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"I am a complicated person with a simple life and I am the reason for everything that ever happened to me."
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"I go to the ocean to say goodbye."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"I go to the ocean to say goodbye."
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"Well, at least this is what I told myself every day as I fell asleep with the fire still burning and the moon shining high up in the sky and my head spinning comforting from two bottles of wine, and I smiled with tears in my eyes because it was beautiful and so god damn sad and I did not know how to be one of those without the other."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"Well, at least this is what I told myself every day as I fell asleep with the fire still burning and the moon shining high up in the sky and my head spinning comforting from two bottles of wine, and I smiled with tears in my eyes because it was beautiful and so god damn sad and I did not know how to be one of those without the other."
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"There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers."
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Erich Fromm
"There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers."
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"It's just as hard to go back to a place you once left, as it is to leave it again."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"It's just as hard to go back to a place you once left, as it is to leave it again."
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"The test of one's behavior pattern is their relationship to society, relationship to work and relationship to sex."
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Alfred Adler
"The test of one's behavior pattern is their relationship to society, relationship to work and relationship to sex."
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"The real opposition is that between the ego-bound man, whose existence is structured by the principle of having, and the free man, who has overcome his egocentricity."
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Erich Fromm
"The real opposition is that between the ego-bound man, whose existence is structured by the principle of having, and the free man, who has overcome his egocentricity."
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"I don't want to be a critic of the world. I want to encourage it."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"I don't want to be a critic of the world. I want to encourage it."
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"It's January and I'm kicking snow off the ground. I just threw out the flower you made me promise to water, handle with care, because I was too careless, you said. Careless with things and people, around me and behindand I remember being still for just a second or two, thinking that it's so much easier to leave and start anew, than take care of what's already here."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"It's January and I'm kicking snow off the ground. I just threw out the flower you made me promise to water, handle with care, because I was too careless, you said. Careless with things and people, around me and behindand I remember being still for just a second or two, thinking that it's so much easier to leave and start anew, than take care of what's already here."
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"The supreme principle of socialism is that man takes precedence over things, life over property, and hence, work over capital; that power follows creation, and not possession; that man must not be governed by circumstances, but circumstances must be governed by man."
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Erich Fromm
"The supreme principle of socialism is that man takes precedence over things, life over property, and hence, work over capital; that power follows creation, and not possession; that man must not be governed by circumstances, but circumstances must be governed by man."
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"The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving birth to himself; indeed, we should be fully born when we die - although it is the tragic fate of most individuals to die before they are born."
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Erich Fromm
"The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving birth to himself; indeed, we should be fully born when we die - although it is the tragic fate of most individuals to die before they are born."
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"The paradoxical situation with a vast number of people today is that they are half asleep when awake, and half awake when asleep, or when they want to sleep."
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Erich Fromm
"The paradoxical situation with a vast number of people today is that they are half asleep when awake, and half awake when asleep, or when they want to sleep."
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"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. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism."
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Erich Fromm
"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. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism."
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"It's about personal development. It's about creating your own character and pushing it to the limit. It's about pushing yourself so far out of your own and everybody else's idea of who you are and what you're capable of, that you no longer believe in limits. It's about reaching beyond your so-called potential, because your potential is never where you or anyone else expects it to be, not even close. It's about being able to say with the last breath of your life "I used all my potential and all my talents and pushed myself to the limit. I could not have fought any harder."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"It's about personal development. It's about creating your own character and pushing it to the limit. It's about pushing yourself so far out of your own and everybody else's idea of who you are and what you're capable of, that you no longer believe in limits. It's about reaching beyond your so-called potential, because your potential is never where you or anyone else expects it to be, not even close. It's about being able to say with the last breath of your life "I used all my potential and all my talents and pushed myself to the limit. I could not have fought any harder."
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"Indeed, with the experience of self disappears the experience of identity - and when this happens, man could become insane if he did not save himself by acquiring a secondary sense of self; he does that by experiencing himself as being approved of, worthwhile, successful, useful - briefly, as a salable commodity which is he because he is looked upon by others as an entity, not unique but fitting into one of the current patterns."
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Erich Fromm
"Indeed, with the experience of self disappears the experience of identity - and when this happens, man could become insane if he did not save himself by acquiring a secondary sense of self; he does that by experiencing himself as being approved of, worthwhile, successful, useful - briefly, as a salable commodity which is he because he is looked upon by others as an entity, not unique but fitting into one of the current patterns."
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"Modern man thinks he loses something - time - when he does not do things quickly, yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains - except kill it."
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Erich Fromm
"Modern man thinks he loses something - time - when he does not do things quickly, yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains - except kill it."
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"I will missmy chest explodingyou coming home latenot turning on the lightalways waking me upI will missthe sudden burst of safetywhen you look at meor hold my handor say something likelet's go homeI will missthe years I loston something or someone.The pieces didn't fit, shaped wrongthe timing slightly off.I loved you like I always will."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"I will missmy chest explodingyou coming home latenot turning on the lightalways waking me upI will missthe sudden burst of safetywhen you look at meor hold my handor say something likelet's go homeI will missthe years I loston something or someone.The pieces didn't fit, shaped wrongthe timing slightly off.I loved you like I always will."
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"The only truly affluent are those who do not want more than they have."
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Erich Fromm
"The only truly affluent are those who do not want more than they have."
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"Inspiration is everywhere."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"Inspiration is everywhere."
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"Today we take for granted that we are we. Yet the doubt about ourselves still exists, or has even grown."
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Erich Fromm
"Today we take for granted that we are we. Yet the doubt about ourselves still exists, or has even grown."
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"It was quite a beautiful thing, the way we simply just came to be, with no effort or trying and slowly we found each other's hands in the dark. No chains or promises, just a simple sign of hope that things will go on and get better and that things and people and views are still out there, yet to be found."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"It was quite a beautiful thing, the way we simply just came to be, with no effort or trying and slowly we found each other's hands in the dark. No chains or promises, just a simple sign of hope that things will go on and get better and that things and people and views are still out there, yet to be found."
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"People keep asking what I do for a living and I keep saying that I don't believe in making a living. That it's a concept that has been twisted. I tell them I believe in making a life and money is a distracting object if there's anything left at the end of the day and I just want to go on well. Make it through the day. So I smile and raise my glass and they laugh and take my hand, saying here's to the youth, pointing at me. And I might just be youngand naivefor I still believe in the freedom of choiceof how to spend your life.So they toast to the youth, who still think she's free, and that's all fine by me."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"People keep asking what I do for a living and I keep saying that I don't believe in making a living. That it's a concept that has been twisted. I tell them I believe in making a life and money is a distracting object if there's anything left at the end of the day and I just want to go on well. Make it through the day. So I smile and raise my glass and they laugh and take my hand, saying here's to the youth, pointing at me. And I might just be youngand naivefor I still believe in the freedom of choiceof how to spend your life.So they toast to the youth, who still think she's free, and that's all fine by me."
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"This year has taught me the simple craft of belief. I believe in the things I've nurtured and built this year. Slowly but carefully. Such as understanding, knowledge, passion, strength; the hundreds of songs I've written, the 365 poems, the books I've read and the miles I've run. The resolution to breathe, to meditate, to not harm my mind or body even when I've felt like it."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"This year has taught me the simple craft of belief. I believe in the things I've nurtured and built this year. Slowly but carefully. Such as understanding, knowledge, passion, strength; the hundreds of songs I've written, the 365 poems, the books I've read and the miles I've run. The resolution to breathe, to meditate, to not harm my mind or body even when I've felt like it."
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"The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist."
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Erich Fromm
"The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist."
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"Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort."
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Erich Fromm
"Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort."
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"Love is the active concern for the life and the growth of that which we love. Where this active concern is lacking, there is no love."
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Erich Fromm
"Love is the active concern for the life and the growth of that which we love. Where this active concern is lacking, there is no love."
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"Loveis not leaning on each other, adjusting to fit a different size.Loveis simply two hands reached out in the darkness,saying; I'll be your light, if you'll be mine."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"Loveis not leaning on each other, adjusting to fit a different size.Loveis simply two hands reached out in the darkness,saying; I'll be your light, if you'll be mine."
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"Spend more time doing things that make you forget about the time."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"Spend more time doing things that make you forget about the time."
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"See, my aim is not to survive but to be thrown to the wolfs with adrenaline still pumping in my veins and hear the gods laughing saying that was one hell of a youth and everything I do I do in order to push my senses and levels of natural ecstasy. I want to be so awake that I pass out by exhaustion every night with a smile on my face and no thoughts of tomorrow because today was all I ever could make of it and I am sick and tired of boredom. Bored people slumbering boring words about bored habits and I want to get out."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"See, my aim is not to survive but to be thrown to the wolfs with adrenaline still pumping in my veins and hear the gods laughing saying that was one hell of a youth and everything I do I do in order to push my senses and levels of natural ecstasy. I want to be so awake that I pass out by exhaustion every night with a smile on my face and no thoughts of tomorrow because today was all I ever could make of it and I am sick and tired of boredom. Bored people slumbering boring words about bored habits and I want to get out."
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"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. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism."
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Erich Fromm
"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. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism."
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"The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane."
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Erich Fromm
"The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane."
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"Erotic love, if it is love, has one premise. That I love from the essence of my being-and experience the other person in the essence of his or her being. In essence, all human beings are identical. We are all part of One; we are One."
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Erich Fromm
"Erotic love, if it is love, has one premise. That I love from the essence of my being-and experience the other person in the essence of his or her being. In essence, all human beings are identical. We are all part of One; we are One."
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"I'm not everything I want to be, but I'm more than I was, and I'm still learning."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"I'm not everything I want to be, but I'm more than I was, and I'm still learning."
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"No one will come and save you. No one will come riding on a white horse and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself, little by little, day by day. Build yourself a home. Take care of your body. Find something to work on. Something that makes you excited, something you want to learn. Get yourself some books and learn them by heart. Get to know the author, where he grew up, what books he read himself. Take yourself out for dinner. Dress up for no one but you and simply feel nice. it's a lovely feeling, to feel pretty. You don't need anyone to confirm it."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"No one will come and save you. No one will come riding on a white horse and take all your worries away. You have to save yourself, little by little, day by day. Build yourself a home. Take care of your body. Find something to work on. Something that makes you excited, something you want to learn. Get yourself some books and learn them by heart. Get to know the author, where he grew up, what books he read himself. Take yourself out for dinner. Dress up for no one but you and simply feel nice. it's a lovely feeling, to feel pretty. You don't need anyone to confirm it."
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"Babies control and bring up their families as much as they are controlled by them; in fact the family brings up baby by being brought up by him."
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Erik H. Erikson
"Babies control and bring up their families as much as they are controlled by them; in fact the family brings up baby by being brought up by him."
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"A society whose members are helpless need idols."
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Erich Fromm
"A society whose members are helpless need idols."
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"What I want to know is how you go on when you look aroundand don't see anywhere you want to go without the only personyou can't have."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"What I want to know is how you go on when you look aroundand don't see anywhere you want to go without the only personyou can't have."
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"There is no such thing as talent. There is pressure."
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Alfred Adler
"There is no such thing as talent. There is pressure."
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"I rest in ease, knowing there are others out there, whispering themselves to sleep, just like me."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"I rest in ease, knowing there are others out there, whispering themselves to sleep, just like me."
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"I am slowly coming to the conclusion that it's more important to learn to work with what you've got, under the circumstances you've been given, than wishing for different ones."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"I am slowly coming to the conclusion that it's more important to learn to work with what you've got, under the circumstances you've been given, than wishing for different ones."
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"Dear world, I am excited to be alive in you, and I am thankful for another year."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"Dear world, I am excited to be alive in you, and I am thankful for another year."
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"I just wish you could see my demons for what they are, and lay here beside me on the floor. No words. Just your presence."
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Charlotte Eriksson
"I just wish you could see my demons for what they are, and lay here beside me on the floor. No words. Just your presence."
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