Quotes from Erich Fromm

But while they were aware of their knowledge and used it, we repress our knowledge immediately, because if it were conscious it would make life too difficult and, as we persuade ourselves, too "dangerous.

Faith in oneself is a condition of our ability to promise, and since, as Nietzsche said, man can be defined by his capacity to promise, faith is one of the conditions of human existence.

Alle Menschen sind Idealisten und können gar nicht umhin, Idealisten zu sein, vorausgesetzt, dass wir unter Idealismus das Streben nach der Befriedigung von Bedürfnissen verstehen, die spezifisch menschlich sind und die über die physiologischen Bedürfnisse des Organismus hinausgehen.

Marx's whole critique of capitalism and his vision of socialism are rooted in the concept that human self-activity is paralyzed in the capitalist system and that the goal is to restore full humanity by restoring activity in all spheres of life.

I have stressed the psychological side of freedom, but I have also tried to show that the psychological problem cannot be separated from the material basis of human existence, from the economic, social, and political structure of society.

In studying the psychological significance of a religious or political doctrine, we must first bear in mind that the psychological analysis does not imply a judgement concerning the truth of the doctrine one analyzes. This latter question can be decided only in terms of the logical structure of the problem itself.

the vast majority of people have a feeling that there is almost nothing in which they can really, concretely and not abstractly influence and participate in the affairs of society.

But in a psychological sense, the lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness. It is the expression of the inability of the individual self to stand alone and live. It is the desperate attempt to gain secondary strength where genuine strength is lacking.

In una civiltà in cui prevalgono gli orientamenti commerciali e in cui il successo materiale è il valore predominante, c'è poco da sorprendersi se i rapporti d'amore seguono lo stesso modello di scambio che regola la vita pratica.

L'amore non è soltanto una relazione con una particolare persona: è un'attitudine, un orientamento di carattere che determina i rapporti di una persona col mondo, non verso un oggetto d'amore. Se una persona ama solo un'altra persona ed è indifferente nei confronti dei suoi simili, il suo non è amore, ma un attaccamento simbiotico, o un egotismo portato all'eccesso.

T]o the extent to which an individual is potent, that is, able to realize his potentialities on the basis of freedom and integrity of his self, he does not need to dominate and is lacking the lust for power.

Ma, oltre a conoscere teoria e pratica, c'è un terzo fattore necessario per diventare maestro in qualunque arte: non deve esserci niente al mondo di più importante.

Se alguém quer tomar-se mestre em alguma arte, deve ter a vida inteira devotada a ela, ou pelo menos relacionada com ela. A própria pessoa se toma um instrumento para a prática da arte e deve ser conservada em condições adequadas, de acordo com as funções específicas que tem a desempenhar.

This world and yonder world are incessantly giving birth: every cause is a mother, its effect the child. When the effect is born, it too becomes a cause and gives birth to wondrous effects. These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a very well lighted eye to see the links in their chain. RUMI

The person who is given to the exclusive pursuit of his passion for money is possessed by his striving for it; money is the idol which he worships as the projection of one isolated power in himself, his greed for it.

Contrariamente ai riti proposti da un'intera comunità, quelli individuali sono caratterizzati da un senso ci colpa e rimorso.

There exists no more difficult art than living. For other arts and sciences, numerous teachers are to be found everywhere. Even young people believe that they have acquired these in such a way, that they can teach them to others: throughout the whole of life, one must continue to learn to live and, what will amaze you even more, throughout life one must learn to die. SENECA

El paraíso es un estado de unidad original con la naturaleza.

Desde el nacimiento hasta la muerte, de lunes a lunes, de la mañana a la noche: todas las actividades están rutinizadas y prefabricadas. ¿Cómo puede un hombre preso en esa red de actividades rutinarias recordar que es un hombre, un individuo único, al que sólo le ha sido otorgada una única oportunidad de vivir, con esperanzas y desilusiones, con dolor y temor, con el anhelo de amar y el miedo a la nada y a la separatidad?

Jestliže má humanistické náboženství teistické jádro, B?h je symbolem moci ?lovÄ›ka, schopností, které se ?lovÄ›k snaží v životÄ› uskute?nit - není to sym­bol síly a ovládání, symbol moci nad ?lovÄ›kem.

In contrast to symbiotic union, mature love is union under the condition of preserving one's integrity, one's individuality. Love is an active power in man; a power which breaks through the walls which separate man from his fellow men, which unites him with others; love makes him overcome the sense of isolation and separateness, yet it permits him to be himself, to retain his integrity. In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.

Today the vast majority of the people not only have no control over the whole of the economic machine, but they have little chance to develop genuine initiative and spontaneity at the particular job they are doing.

It is the fact that man does not experience himself as the active bearer of his own powers and richness, but as an impoverished "thing," dependent on powers outside of himself, unto whom he has projected his living substance. As the reference to idolatry indicates, alienation is by no means a modern phenomenon.

Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous.[3] Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.