Erich Fromm quotes - page 4

Care and responsibility are constituent elements of love, but without respect for and knowledge of the beloved person, love deteriorates into domination and possessiveness. Respect is not fear and awe; it denotes, in accordance with the root of the word (respicere = to look at), the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his individuality and uniqueness. To respect a person is not possible without knowing him; care and responsibilty would be blind if they were not guided by the knowledge of the person's individuality. (Erich Fromm)
Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality; they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into a sadist or a destroyer.
Erich Fromm
That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.
Erich Fromm
Freedom does not mean license.
Erich Fromm
The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots.
Erich Fromm
The real opposition is that between the ego-bound man, whose existence is structured by the principle of having, and the free man, who has overcome his egocentricity.
Erich Fromm
As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask.
Erich Fromm
People do not see that the main question is not : "Am I loved?" which is to a large extent the question : "Am I approved of? Am I protected? Am I admired?" The main question is: "Can I love?
Erich Fromm
Destructiveness is the outcome of an unlived life.
Erich Fromm
There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.
Erich Fromm
Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age? (Erich Fromm)
Most people die before they are fully born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies.
Erich Fromm
Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.
Erich Fromm
Man does not only sell commodities, he sells himself and feels himself to be a commodity.
Erich Fromm
Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort.
Erich Fromm
We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.
Erich Fromm
We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent - people who are glad when we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save.
Erich Fromm
I believe that if an individual is not on the path to transcending his society and seeing in what way it furthers or impedes the development of human potential, he cannot enter into intimate contact with his humanity.
Erich Fromm
Love is often nothing but a favorable exchange between two people who get the most of what they can expect, considering their value on the personality market.
Erich Fromm
Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.
Erich Fromm
Greedhas no satiation point, since its consummation does not fill the inner emptiness, boredom, loneliness, and depression it is meant to overcome. (Erich Fromm)
Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision-making which replace the principles of instincts.
Erich Fromm
There is nothing inhuman, evil, or irrational which does not give some comfort, provided it is shared by a group.
Erich Fromm
There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started out with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet which fails so regularly, as love.
Erich Fromm
The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology.
Erich Fromm