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About this quote

What does it mean?
Reich claims that only individuals can liberate themselves, not historical figures or external liberators.
In plain terms
You are your own liberator.
What can you take from it?
Take personal responsibility for your freedom.

Where it applies

  • social movements
  • personal empowerment

Putting it to work

  • self‑advocacy
  • independent thinking

Questions to consider

  • How can you become your own liberator?
  • What external factors help or hinder your freedom?

Another view

Collective action also plays a crucial role in liberation.

More from Wilhelm Reich

  1. 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 greatn…

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  2. This sentence makes me hesitate. I contend to be a fighter for pureness and truth. I hesitate, because I am afraid of you and your attitude towards truth. To s…

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  3. You are different from the really great man in only one thing: The great man, at one time, also was a very little man, but he developed one important ability: …

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