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Men Quotes by Erich Fromm

104 Men quotes by Erich Fromm

All Men quotes Erich Fromm’s page

Erich Fromm says love works like a bridge that breaks walls between people. He believes that when people help each other, life feels meaningful and fair. He warns that exploitation and manipulation make people bored, weak, and even cruel in the world.

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Even the most sadistic and destructive man is human, as human as the saint.

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Men are born equal but they are also born different.

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Man absolutely cannot live by himself.

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Only in being productively active can man make sense of his life.

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Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself.

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Man unites himself with the world in the process of creation.

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Man is the only animal that can be bored.

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Man can only know the nagation, never the position of ultimate reality.

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Human history begins with man's act of disobedience which is at the very same time the beginning of his freedom and development…

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Man may be defined as the animal that can say ''I,'' that can be aware of himself as a separate entity.

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On the whole, our modern ritual is impoverished and does not fulfill man's need for collective art and ritual.

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We are all equal in the sense that no man must mean - must be - the means for the purposes of…

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Today the function of psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis threatens to become the tool in the manipulation of man.

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Critical and radical thought will only bear fruit when it is blended with the most precious quality man is endowed with -…

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All men are in need of help and depend on one another. Human solidarity is the necessary condition for the unfolding of…

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Modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is supposed to want.

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One of the worst forms of mental suffering is boredom, not knowing what to do with oneself and one's life. Even if…

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What we have in common is a mass men, a mass bureaucracy, and a manipulation of everyone to act smoothly, but with…

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Only when man succeeds in developing his reason and love further than he has done so far, only when he can build…

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When the theory of evolution destroyed the picture of God as the supreme Creator, confidence in God as the all-powerful Father of…

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The history of man is a graveyard of great cultures that came to catastrophic ends because of their incapacity for planned, rational,…

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The criterion of mental health is not one of individual adjustment to a given social order, but a universal one, valid for…

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I believe that none can "save" his fellow man by making a choice for him. To help him, he can indicate the…

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I think American man unconsciously hates his work very often, because he feels trapped by it... imprisoned by it... because he feels…

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Basically, there can only be two answers. One is to overcome separateness and find unity by regression to the state of unity…

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The two most far-reaching critical theories at the beginning of the latest phase of industrial society were those of Marx and Freud.…

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Man, the more he gains freedom in the sense of emerging from the original oneness with man and nature and the more…

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Even if man's hunger and thirst and his sexual strivings are completely satisfied, 'he' is not satisfied. In contrast to the animal…

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The history of man so far is nothing to brag about, from the standpoint of our ideas - and what I mean…

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The pleasure in complete domination over another person (or other animate creature) is the very essence of the sadistic drive. Another way…

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The pace of science forces the pace of technique. Theoretical physics forces atomic energy on us; the successful production of the fission…

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Man represses the irrational passions of destructiveness, hate, envy, revenge; he worships power, money, the sovereign state, the nation; while he pays…

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Free man is by necessity insecure, thinking man by necessity uncertain.

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The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.

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Man does not only sell commodities, he sells himself and feels himself to be a commodity.

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What is it that distinguishes man from animals? It is not his upright posture.

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Jewish legend says that the world rests on 36 just men: only thirty six, but their moral strength is immense.

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Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to…

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Man can be conditioned to behave in almost every desired way; but only "almost.

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Man can never stand still. He must find solutions to this contradiction, and ever better solutions to the extent to which reality…

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More by Erich Fromm

The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.

Only when man succeeds in developing his reason and love further than he has done so far, only when he can build a world…

Freedom does not mean license.

“It is hardly necessary to stress the fact that the ability to love as an act of giving depends on the character development of…

The pace of science forces the pace of technique. Theoretical physics forces atomic energy on us; the successful production of the fission bomb forces…

Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality; they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into…

Well-being is possible to the degree to which one has overcome one's narcissism; to the degree to which one is open, responsive, sensitive, awake,…

“The wealth of data to be found in social and political life. The belief that people do not want to make sacrifices is notoriously…

By equality, one once understood equality in the very same sense in which the Bible speaks of equality: that we are all equal, inasmuch…

“Human beings had two basic orientations: HAVING and BEING HAVING: seeks to acquire, posses things even people BEING: focuses on the experience; exchanging, engaging,…

“Most people are not even aware of their need to conform. They live under the illusion that they follow their own ideas and inclinations,…

Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.

To respect a person is not possible without knowing him; care and responsibility would be blind if they were not guided by knowledge.

Love is an active power in man; a power which breaks through the walls which separate man from his fellow men, which unite him…

“Perhaps most trivial talk is a need to talk about oneself; hence, the never-ending subject of health and sickness, children, travel, successes, what one…