Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Frommwas a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPsychologist
Date of Birth23 March 1900
CountryUnited States of America
love-life men quality
Critical and radical thought will only bear fruit when it is blended with the most precious quality man is endowed with - the love of life
leadership times-have-changed earth
In times of change, learners inherit the earth
freedom men liberty
Human history begins with man's act of disobedience which is at the very same time the beginning of his freedom and development of his reason.
strong decision feelings
To love somebody is not just a strong feeling - it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise.
errors people doe
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.
christian mean reflection
If the meaning of life has become doubtful, if one's relations to others and to oneself do not offer security, then fame is one means to silence one's doubts. It has a function to be compared with that of the Egyptian pyramids or the Christian faith in immortality: it elevates one's individual life from its limitations and instability to the plane of indestructability; if one's name is known to one's contemporaries and if one can hope that it will last for centuries, then one's life has meaning and significance by this very reflection of it in the judgments of others.
history growth world
We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.
dream sleep understanding
We all dream; we do not understand our dreams, yet we act as if nothing strange goes on in our sleep minds, strange at least by comparison with the logical, purposeful doings of our minds when we are awake.
sadness compassion curiosity
One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.
faith confidence able
Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.
affluence want affluent
The only truly affluent are those who do not want more than they have.
lonely suffering-of-others feelings
A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet 'for sale', who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society.
civilization doubt may
Human history began as an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience. At this point in history the capacity to doubt, to criticize and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization.
motivational freedom real
There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.