Free man is by necessity insecure, thinking man by necessity uncertain. Erich Fromm More Quotes by Erich Fromm More Quotes From Erich Fromm The destruction of the world is the last, almost desperate attempt to save myself from being crushed by it Erich Fromm desperatelastsworld The mother's and father's attitudes toward the child correspond to the child's own needs.... Mother has the function of making himsecure in life, father has the function of teaching him, guiding him to cope with those problems with which the particular society the child has been born into confronts him. Erich Fromm motherattitudechildren Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair. If one truly responds to man and his future, ie , concernedly and "responsibly." one can respond only by faith or by despair. Rational faith as well as rational despair are based on the most thorough, critical knowledge of all the factors that are relevant for the survival of man. Erich Fromm optimismsurvivalmen I believe that the fundamental alternative for man is the choice between "life" and "death"; between creativity and destructive violence; between reality and illusions; between objectivity Erich Fromm creativitybelievereality There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as moral indignation, which permits envy or to be acted out under the guise of virtue. Erich Fromm envyspiritualfeelings The need for the creation of collective art and ritual on a nonclerical basis is at least as important as literacy and higher education. Erich Fromm importantartneeds To be concentrated means to live fully in the present. Erich Fromm concentrationmean Erotic love begins with separateness, and ends in oneness. Motherly love begins with oneness, and leads to separateness. Erich Fromm eroticonenesslove Sanity is only that which is within the frame of reference of conventional thought. Erich Fromm frame-of-referenceconventionalsanity The existential split in man would be unbearable could he not establish a sense of unity within himself and with the natural and human world outside. Erich Fromm unbearableunitymen If we begin to say, "Well, maybe we can cope better with the Russians if we also transform ourselves into a managed society, if we, as somebody put it the other day, train our soldiers to be like the Turks, who have fought so bravely in Korea, if we are willing to change our whole way of life for the sake of so-called "survival," then I think we do exactly that which threatens our survival. Erich Fromm koreasoldierthinking In his condemnation [Karl] Marx referred to institutionalized religion,that has precisely the function of anesthetizing men till they do not notice the in- justice of which they are the perpetrators and the victims. Erich Fromm victimjusticemen The average American has separated his private life from his existence as a member of his society, and leaves that to the specialists in the government to take care of. Erich Fromm caregovernmentaverage Many students of dreams, from Plato to [Sigmund] Freud, hold that the sleeping person,deprived of contact with the outside world, regresses temporarily to an irrational primitive mental state. Erich Fromm platodreamsleep Finally one arrives at this: the state of sleep has an ambiguous function; in sleep, the lack of contact with the culture brings out the worst and also the best in us. Erich Fromm statessleepculture We can express ideas without being afraid of being killed or imprisoned. Erich Fromm being-afraidideas Our main way of relating ourselves to others is like things relate themselves to things on the market. We want to exchange our own personality - or as one says sometimes, our "personality package" - for something. Erich Fromm personalitywantway [Sigmund ] Freud did not under-stand that the dream is a highly creative act, written in the universal language of symbolism, and only secondarily does censorship distort those parts that the subject refuses to accept even in sleep. Erich Fromm symbolismdreamsleep We are all equal in the sense that no man must mean - must be - the means for the purposes of another man; but each individual is an end in itself. Erich Fromm purposemenmean Happiness should be something which results from the creative, genuine, intense relatedness - awareness, responsiveness, to everything in life - to man, to nature. Erich Fromm awarenesscreativemen
