(?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)
Elias Canetti

“It is only in a crowd that man can become free of this fear of being touched. That is the only situation in which the fear changes into its opposite. The crowd he needs is the dense crowd, in which body is pressed to body; a crowd, too, whose psychical constitution is also dense, or compact, so that he no longer notices who it is that presses against him. As soon as a man has surrendered himself to the crowd, he ceases to fear its touch. Ideally, all are equal there; no distinctions count. Not even that of sex. The man pressed against him is the same as himself He feels him as he feels himself. Suddenly it is as though everything were happening in one and the same body." (15)”

Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power
Read more quotes from Elias Canetti


Share this quote:
Share on Twitter

Friends Who Liked This Quote

To see what your friends thought of this quote, please sign up!


This Quote Is From

Crowds and Power Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti
2,070 ratings, average rating, 177 reviews
Open Preview

Browse By Tag