Erich Fromm Quotes

“The faculty to think objectively is reason; the emotional attitude behind reason is that of humility. To be objective, to use one's reason, is possible only if one has achieved an attitude of humility, if one has emerged from the dreams of omniscience and omnipotence which one has as a child. Love, being dependent on the relative absence of narcissism, requires the developement of humility, objectivity and reason.

I must try to see the difference between my picture of a person and his behavior, as it is narcissistically distorted, and the person's reality as it exists regardless of my interests, needs and fears.”
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

“...Erich Fromm wondered why most people did not become insane in the face of the existential contradiction between a symbolic self, that seems to give man infinite worth in a timeless scheme of things, and a body that is worth about 98¢.”
― Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

“The only way of full knowledge lies in the act of love; this act transcends thought, it transcends words. It is the daring plunge into the experience of union.”
― Erich Fromm

“As the generations pass they grow worse. A time will come when they have grown so wicked that they will worship power; might will be right to them and reverence for the good will cease to be. At last, when no man is angry any more at wrongdoing or feels shame in the presence of the miserable, Zeus will destroy them too. And yet even then something might be done, if only the common people would rise and put down rulers that oppress them.”
― Greek myth on the Iron Age

“Although there are certain needs, such as hunger, thirst, sex, which are common to man, those drives which make for the differences in men's characters, like love and hatred, the lust for power and the yearning for submission, the enjoyment of sensuous pleasure and the fear of it, are all products of the social process. The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed and biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man. In other words, society has not only a suppressing function - although it has that too - but it has also a creative function.”
― Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

“since men are equal and thus have the same wish for happiness, and since there is not enough wealth to satisfy them all to the same extent, they necessarily fight against each other and want power to secure the future enjoyment of what they have at present.”
― Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

“For despite what some people say, love is not only a sweet falling bound to come and quickly go away.”
― Erich Fromm

“If humanity continues to consume natural resources irresponsibly and disrupt the balance of nature that provides human life, it will be inevitable that we will encounter the catastrophe of total extinction in less than a hundred years.”
― Erich Fromm

“La raison découle du mélange de la pensée rationnelle et des sentiments. Si les deux fonctions se dissocient, la pensée se détériore en activité intellectuelle schizoïde et les sentiments en passions névrotiques autodestructrices. ”
― Erich Fromm

“Der Anpassungstheorie liegen folgende Annahmen zugrunde: 1. Jede Gesellschaft als soche ist normal; 2. seelisch krann ist, wer von dem von der Gesellschaft favorisierten Persönlichkeitstyp abweicht; 3. das Gesundheitswesen im Bereich von Psychiatrie udn Psychotherapie verfolgt das Ziel, den einzelnen auf das Niveau des Durchschnittschmenschen zu bringen, unabhängig davon, ob dieser blind ist oder nicht blind.”
― Erich Fromm, La patología de la normalidad

“According to [Dr. Erich] Fromm, what motivates so many Believers, regardless of religious affiliation, is the image of the Divine, an image that many Believers try to emulate (e.g. Imitatio Christi). Fromm states that within a humanistic religion, “God is the image of man’s [and/or woman’s] higher self, a symbol of what man [or woman] potentially is or ought to become” but “in an authoritarian religion, God becomes the sole possessor” of human’s reason and love.”
― Walter A. Jensen, Erich Fromm's contributions to sociological theory

“Intelligence, which is used without the control of the mind, can lead people to dangers up to extinction. Utilitarian intelligence, which the mind cannot control, is dangerous as much as it is sharp.”
― Erich Fromm

“the key problem of psychology is that of the specific kind of relatedness of the individual towards the world and not that of the satisfaction or frustration of this or that instinctual need per se”
― Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

“ინცესტუოზურად ორიენტირებულ ადამიანს გააჩნია იმ ადამიანებთან სიახლოვის გრძნობის უნარი, ვისაც იცნობს, მაგრამ არ შეუძლია მჭიდროდ დაუკავშიროს თავი “უცნობს”, ანუ სხვა ადამიანურ არსებას. ასეთ ორიენტაციაში ყველა გრძნობა და იდეა ფასდება არა სიკეთისა და ბოროტების, ჭეშმარიტებისა და სიცრუის, არამედ ნაცნობისა და უცნობის ტერმინებში. როდესაც იესო ამბობდა: “…რადგანაც მოვედი, რომ დავაშორო ადამიანი მამას, ქალიშვილი დედას, და რძალი დედამთილს” (მათე 10:35), იგი არ გულისხმობდა მშობლებისადმი სიძულვილის მცნებას, არამედ ყველაზე არაორაზროვანი და მკვეთრი ფორმით იმ პრინციპს გამოხატავდა, რომ ადამიანმა, რათა ადამიანი გახდეს, უნდა გაწყვიტოს ინცესტუოზური კავშირები და მოიპოვოს თავისუფლება.”
― Erich Fromm

“Sembra un paradosso, ma nell'amore due esseri diventano uno, e tuttavia restano due.”
― Erich Fromm

“სრულ დაბადებამდე, ადამიანების უმეტესობა კვდება”
― Erich Fromm

“If everyone read the Erich Fromm, they would understand themselves and their world better. They would realize their "leaders" are at best fools and at worst, devils.”
― Kara D. Spain