Quotes by Erich Fromm
As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found- in himself.
Paradoxically, the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love.
"I have a tremendous faith in the possibilities of man, which have shown in his past, and I believe if we avoid war, we shall be able to revive our real vision of life, but that we must see it, and therefore, that we must be critical to where we are."
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
Respect is not fear and awe; it...[is]the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his unique individuality. Respect, thus, implies the absence of exploitation. I want the loved person to grow and unfold for his own sake, and in his own ways, and not for the purpose of serving me.
We are not on the way to greater individualism, but are becoming an increasingly manipulated mass civilization.
The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane.
The affirmation of one's own life, happiness, growth and freedom, is rooted in one's capacity to love.
To love somebody is not just a strong feeling - it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise.
Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be. Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.
If other people do not understand our behavior-so what? Their request that we must only do what they understand is an attempt to dictate to us. If this is being 'asocial' or 'irrational' in their eyes, so be it. Mostly they resent our freedom and our courage to be ourselves. We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them.
Many psychiatrists and psychologists refuse to entertain the idea that society as a whole may be lacking in sanity. They hold that the problem of mental health in a society is only that of the number of 'unadjusted' individuals, and not of a possible unadjustment of the culture itself.
The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.
The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots.
Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
It takes a moment to tell someone you love them, but it takes a lifetime to prove it.
Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.
Love isn't something natural. Rather it requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith, and the overcoming of narcissism. It isn't a feeling, it is a practice.
The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.
When people can't handle God any more, they turn to religion.
You have to stop in order to change direction.
Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.