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About this quote

What does it mean?
The only inherent meaning of life is the act of living itself.
In plain terms
Life is meaningful because we live it.
What can you take from it?
Find meaning in the experience of living.

Where it applies

  • seeking purpose
  • philosophical inquiry
  • existential crisis

Putting it to work

  • engaging fully with daily life
  • valuing presence

Questions to consider

  • What makes living meaningful for you?
  • How do you experience the act of living?

Another view

Some people find specific meanings beyond the act itself.

More from Erich Fromm

  1. There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives to his life by the unfolding of his powers.

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  2. There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as moral indignation, which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of v…

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  3. There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started out with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet which fails so regularly, as love.

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