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 More Quotes by Erich Fromm More Quotes From Erich Fromm To live is to be born every minute. Death occurs when birth stops. Erich Fromm knowing-who-you-are birth born There is nothing of which we are more ashamed than of not being ourselves. And there is nothing which brings us greater joy and happiness than to think, feel, and say what is ours. Erich Fromm joy happiness thinking One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often. Erich Fromm sadness curiosity compassion Every act of irreverence for life, every act which neglects life, which is indifferent to and wastes life, is a step towards the love of death. This choice man must make at every minute. Never were the consequences of the wrong choice as total and as irreversible as they are today. Never was the warning of the Bible so urgent: 'I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life, that you and your children may live.' Erich Fromm blessing men children 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 faith love romantic As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask. Erich Fromm mask ladders injustice 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 approved protected people If I perceive in another person mainly the surface, I perceive mainly the differences,that which separates us. If I penetrate to the core, i perceive our identity, the fact of our brotherhood. This relatedness from center to center - instead of that from periphery to periphery - is 'central relatedness'. Erich Fromm brotherhood differences identity If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to all others, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism. Erich Fromm attachment love life Happiness does not exclude sadness - if a person responds to life, he's sometimes happy and sometimes sad. What matters is he responds. Erich Fromm what-matters sadness doe I believe that love is the main key to open the doors to the "growth" of man. Love and union with someone or something outside of oneself, union that allows one to put oneself into relationship with others, to feel one with others, without limiting the sense of integrity and independence. Love is a productive orientation for which it is essential that there be present at the same time: concern, responsibility, and respect for and knowledge of the object of the union. Erich Fromm integrity life believe We are not on the way to greater individualism, but are becoming an increasingly manipulated mass civilization. Erich Fromm becoming civilization way Today it is not alive. What, then, is this experience of humanism? With the above survey I have tried to show you that the experience of humanism is that — as Terence expressed it — “Nothing human is alien to me”; that nothing which exists in any human being does not exist in myself. I am the criminal and I am the saint. I am the child and I am the adult. I am the man who lived a hundred thousand years ago and I am the man who, provided we don't destroy the human race, will live hundred thousand years from now. Erich Fromm men children years Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love. Erich Fromm faith love life Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others. Erich Fromm confidence able faith That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane. Erich Fromm sanity doe people Modern capitalism needs men who cooperate smoothly and in large numbers; who want to consume more and more; and whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and anticipated ... what is the outcome? Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow man and from nature. Erich Fromm numbers men needs 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. Erich Fromm clouds believe past Education is identical with helping the child realize his potentialities. The opposite of education is manipulation, which is based on the absence of faith in the growth of potentialities and the connection that a child will be right only if the adults put into him what is desirable and suppress what seems to be undesirable. Erich Fromm growth opposites children ...in spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power-almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving. Could it be that only those things are considered worthy of being learned with which one can earn money or prestige, and that love, which "only" profits the soul, but is profitless in the modern sense, is a luxury we have no right to spend energy on? Erich Fromm luxury soul art
