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About this quote

What does it mean?
Identity based on possessions collapses when those possessions are lost.
In plain terms
If you are just your things, you have no self when you lose them.
What can you take from it?
Define yourself beyond your possessions.

Where it applies

  • personal crisis
  • wealth management
  • identity formation

Putting it to work

  • focus on values
  • detach from things

Questions to consider

  • Who are you without your things?
  • What defines your identity?

Another view

Objects often hold meaningful memories beyond their material value.

More from Erich Fromm

  1. Education is helping the child realize his potentialities.

    Permalink to quote #77

  2. In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.

    Permalink to quote #79

  3. Destructiveness is the outcome of unlived lives.

    Permalink to quote #76

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