Integrity simply means a willingness not to violate one's identity, in the many ways in which such violation is possible. Erich Fromm More Quotes by Erich Fromm More Quotes From Erich Fromm Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. Erich Fromm communication important dream Education makes machines which act like men and produces men who act like machines. Erich Fromm technology men school What is it that distinguishes man from animals? It is not his upright posture. Erich Fromm posture animal men Exclusive love is a contradiction in itself. Erich Fromm exclusive contradiction love People have committed suicide because of their failure to realize the passions for love , power , fame , revenge . Cases of suicide because of a lack of sexual satisfaction are virtually nonexistent. Erich Fromm passion revenge suicide In the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness. Erich Fromm generosity expression lying . . . freedom to creat and construct, to wonder and to venture. Such freedom requires that the individual be active and responsible, not a slave or a well-fed cog in the machine . . . It is not enough that men are not slaves; if social conditions further the existence of automatons, the result will not be love of life, but love of death. Erich Fromm love-life venture men The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist. Erich Fromm power fear men Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself. Erich Fromm spiritual inspirational men There is only one meaning of life: the act of living itself. Erich Fromm meaning-of-life anxiety worry Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous. Erich Fromm power love lying We must make a decision of values. Erich Fromm values decision For [Sigmund ] Freud, the manifest dream, that is that which we remember after waking,is like a code message, that can be interpreted, provided the right key is avail-able, for example the method of free association. Erich Fromm keys example dream Man is the only animal who does not feel at home in nature, who can feel evicted from paradise, the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem that he has to solve and from which he cannot escape. He cannot go back to the prehuman state of harmony with nature, and he does not know where he will arrive if he goes forward. Man's existential contradiction results in a state of constant disequilibrium. This disequilibrium distinguishes him from the animal, which lives, as it were, in harmony with nature. Erich Fromm home animal men That man can destroy life is just as miraculous a feat as that he can create it, for life is the miracle, the inexplicable. In the act of destruction, man sets himself above life; he transcends himself as a creature. 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 hate men life All genuine ideals have one thing in common: they express the desire for something which is not yet accomplished but which is desirable for the purpose of the growth and happiness of the individual. Erich Fromm growth purpose desire Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world. Erich Fromm communication missing dream To respect a person is not possible without knowing him; care and responsibility would be blind if they were not guided by knowledge. Erich Fromm knowing responsibility school If faith cannot be reconciled with rational thinking, it has to be eliminated as an anachronistic remnant of earlier stages of culture and replaced by science dealing with facts and theories which are intelligible and can be validated. Erich Fromm fear religion thinking Reason is man's faculty for grasping the world by thought, in contradiction to intelligence, which is man's ability to manipulate the world with the help of thought. Reason is man's instrument for arriving at the truth, intelligence is man's instrument for manipulating the world more successfully; the former is essentially human, the latter belongs to the animal part of man. Erich Fromm intelligent animal men
