I'm looking for the original English version of two quotes that appear
in a text I am translating from German into English.

The author of the text I am translating into English has quoted from
the German translation of Erich Fromm's book "To have or to be?" which
was originally published in English in 1976. The quotes are apparently
on p. 37 in the German version. I could of course translate the quotes
myself since I am a professional translator, but since the text I'm
working on will be published, I need the precise original quotations
from the original English work written by Fromm, otherwise I could get
in trouble with the publisher. So what I need is for someone to go to
a library, find this book, and copy me down the following two excerpts
precisely as they appear in the original work (on or near p.37):

"...the wish to devour the entire world, the consumer is the eternal
suckling, crying out for its bottle."

and

?Ich bin was ich habe und was ich konsumiere.?  
"I am what I have and what I consume."

It's unlikely, but I may have hit the nail on the had and guessed the
originals correctly, but if not, I need the exact quotations.

Thank you,

-Matt Bulow

---

Clarification of Question by mabst54-ga on 10 Mar 2005 06:51 PST

It would be great if the person answering this could provide the page
number of that the quotes are found on as well as the full
bibliographical citation!

Hello mabst54: 

Thanks for the interesting question. Luckily, my local library had a
copy of "To Have or to Be" (and a first edition from 1976 at that).

The quotes you are look for are from Part One, "Understanding the
Difference Between Having and Being", Chapter I, "A First Glance",
section "Having and Consuming." Both quotes apeear on page 27.

"The attitude inherent in consumerism is that of swallowing the whole
world. The consumer is the eternal suckling crying for the bottle."

and

"Modern consumers may identify themselves by the formula: I am = what
I have and what I consume."

In the second quote, "I am = what I have and what I consume" is printed in italics.

A full bibiographic citation for this would be:

Fromm, Erich. TO HAVE OR TO BE. New York: Harper & Row, 1976, p. 27.

Search Strategy:
* "fromm, erich"
* "to have or to be"
+ used my local library catalogue

I hope this helps. 

websearcher

Precisely what I needed, thank you. Living in Germany, the local
libraries here don't have a very good selection of English-language
literature. Thanks for the shoe leather!

Hi mabst54:

Thanks for the generous rating and comments. I'm glad I could be of assistance. 

Seien Sie vorsichtig!

websearcher

websearcher wrote:

"Seien Sie vorsichtig!"

I hope this was merely a machine translation for "take care" etc...
Because what it means is something along the lines of "you'd better be
careful" or "watch out." Websearcher -- am I in grave danger? :-)

Well, I guess I should take care when trusting Web pages with common
German phrases on them!!! ;-)

"Take care" has two meanings in English. One is "be on the alert" and
the other is "have a good day". I meant the latter.

Rest easy - you have nothing to fear. I'll stick to English from now on. :-)

websearcher