"If the individual were no longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this kind of freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization. The technological processes of mechanization and standardization might release individual energy into a yet uncharted realm of freedom beyond necessity. The very structure of human existence would be altered; the individual would be liberated from the work world's imposing upon him alien needs and alien possibilities. The individual would be free to exert autonomy over a life that would be his own."
React to this quote
More by Herbert Marcuse
See allResonant Thoughts
"The first and the foremost thing that I would like to emphasize is this — remember that you are now a sovereign legislative body and you have got all the powers. It, therefore, places on you the grave…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Parents were the only ones obligated to love you from the rest of the world you had to earn it."
— Ann Brashares"Despair the twin-born of devotion."
— Algernon Charles Swinburne"If it is a question of seeking formal contradictions, then obviously we must do so on the side of the White…"
— Leon Trotsky"I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for and …"
— Lyndon B. Johnson"Why illustrate a great piece of writing whose very advocacy and evocation and efficacy lies within its very…"
— Peter Greenaway"I have come to the conclusion that the bed comprehends our whole life; for we were bom in it, we live in it…"
— Guy de Maupassant
