Erich Fromm Quotes

Biography: Erich Fromm is known for his work as a social psychologist, psychoanal... more Biography: Erich Fromm is known for his work as a social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, and humanistic philosopher. Born in 1900 in Germany, Fromm explored the connections between psychology and society. His notable works include "Escape from Freedom" and "The Art of Loving," which examined human behavior and the importance of love and freedom in personal development. less

"Modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants exactly what he is supposed to want""There is scarcely any passion without struggle""For the greedy, there is no life, for they never are satisfied, only stuck in the perpetual pursuit of more wealth""Paradoxically, the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love""The ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love""We are determined by the fact of birth, by the bodily and mental structure we bring into the world""Man may be defined as the animal that can say "I," that can be aware of himself as a separate entity""If other people do not understand our behavior—so what? Their request that we must make sense to them can be just an attempt to control us""The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics""There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers""The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different""The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed and biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man""To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable""Love isn't something natural. Rather it requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith, and the overcoming of narcissism""Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation""The revolution is not the climax of historical evolution but a conspiracy against it""People do not get what they want or feel unhappy if they do get it""Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality""Destructiveness is the outcome of an unlived life""Most people die before they are fully born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies"

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