We must make a decision of values. Erich Fromm More Quotes by Erich Fromm More Quotes From Erich Fromm Ideas become powerful only if they appear in the flesh; an idea which does not lead to action by the individual and by groups remains at best a paragraph or a footnote in a book. Erich Fromm powerfulbookideas Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort. Erich Fromm art-of-lovingeffortart Destructiveness is the outcome of an unlived life. Erich Fromm destructivenessoutcomeslife Love is an act of faith. Erich Fromm faithsweetromantic For the most part, biophiliacs,lovers of life, are found among simple people, without pretensions. Erich Fromm loverssimplepeople Productive work, love and thought are possible only if a person can be, when necessary, quiet and alone. To be able to listen to oneself is the necessary condition for relating oneself to others. Erich Fromm productive-workablepeace Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either. Erich Fromm selfishgreedlove-you The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers. Erich Fromm blockpowermen We are not only less reasonable and less decent in our dreams... we are also more inteligent, wiser and capable of better judgment when we are asleep than when we are awake. Erich Fromm awakejudgmentdream Our contemporary Western society, in spite of its material, intellectual and political progress, is increasingly less conducive to mental health, and tends to undermine the inner security, happiness, reason and the capacity for love in the individual; it tends to turn him into an automaton who pays for his human failure with increasing mental sickness, and with despair hidden under a frantic drive for work and so called pleasure. Erich Fromm progresspoliticalintellectual If I love the other person, I feel one with him or her, but with him as he is, not as I need him to be as an object for my use. Respect thus implies the absence of exploitation: it allows the other to be, to change and to develop 'in his own ways.' This requires a commitment to know the other as a separate being, and not merely as a reflection of my own ego. According to Velleman this loving willingness and ability to see the other as they really are is foregrounded in our willingness to risk self-exposure. Erich Fromm reflectionselfcommitment Love is the active concern for the life and the growth of that which we love. Erich Fromm art-of-lovinggrowthlove-is Integrity simply means a willingness not to violate one's identity, in the many ways in which such violation is possible. Erich Fromm identityintegritymean Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much. Erich Fromm familyhappinesslove The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man. Erich Fromm beautifulbeautymen Our whole culture is based on the appetite for buying, on the idea of a mutually favorable exchange. .... For the man an attractive girl - and for the woman an attractive man - are the prizes they are after. 'attractive' usually means a nice package of qualities which are popular and sought after on the personality market. What specifically makes a person attractive depends on the fashion of the time, physically as well as mentally. ... Two persons thus fall in love when they feel they have found the best object available on the market, considering the limitations of their own exchange values. Erich Fromm fashiongirllove Love of others and love of ourselves are not alternatives. On the contrary, an attitude of love towards themselves will be found in all those who are capable of loving others. Erich Fromm alternativesself-esteemattitude The sadistic person is as dependent on the submissive person as the latter is on the former; neither can live without the other. The difference is only that the sadistic person commands, exploits, hurts, humiliates, and that the masochistic person is commanded, exploited, hurt, humiliated. This is a considerable difference in a realistic sense; in a deeper emotional sense, the difference is not so great as that which they both have in common: fusion without integrity . Erich Fromm emotionalhurtintegrity The duty to be alive is the same as the duty to become oneself, to develop into the individual one potentially is. Erich Fromm individualalivelife What are the conditions of the creative attitude, of seeing and responding, of being aware and being sensitive to what one is aware of? First of all it requires the capacity to be puzzled. Children still have the capacity to be puzzled. Erich Fromm creativeattitudechildren
