Quotes from Erich Fromm

The ability to love depends on one's capacity to emerge from narcissism, and from the incestuous fixation to mother and clan; it depends on our capacity to grow, to develop a productive orientation in our relationship toward the world and ourselves. This process of emergence, of birth, of waking up, requires one quality as a necessary condition: faith. The practice of the art of loving requires the practice of faith.

Ficar concentrado significa viver plenamente no presente, agora, aqui, e não pensar na coisa seguinte a ser feita enquanto estou fazendo outra coisa neste instante.

If the social structure is one of submission to authority—overt authority or the anonymous authority of the market and public opinion—his concept of God must be infantile and far from the mature concept, the seeds of which are to be found in the history of monotheistic religion.

Where the roots of Western culture … considered the aim of life the perfection of man, modern man is concerned with the perfection of things, and the knowledge of how to make them.

Our education generally tries to train people to have knowledge as a possession, by and large commensurate with the amount of property or social prestige they are likely to have in later life.

Gerçek nedir? Rüyada gördüklerimizin deÄŸil de, uyan?k iken gördüklerimizin gerçek olduÄŸunu nas?l iddia edebili?iz? Bu sorunu bir Çin ÅŸairi ÅŸöyle aç?klam??t?r: Geçen gece rüyamda kelebek olduÄŸumu gördüm. Ama ÅŸimdi, bir kelebek olduÄŸunu düÅŸünen bir insan m? ya da insan olduÄŸunu düÅŸünen bir kelebek mi olduÄŸumu kestiremiyorum.

Even to begin to understand the problem of faith one must differentiate between rational and irrational faith.

em todos os tipos de obra criadora o trabalhador e seu objeto tornam-se um, o homem se une ao mundo no processo da criação. Isto, porém, só permanece verdadeiro para o trabalho produtivo, para a obra que eu planejo, produzo e em que vejo o resultado de meu trabalho.

also each individual sincerely believes that he is "he" and that his thoughts, feelings, wishes are "his." Yet, although there are true individuals among us, this belief is an illusion in most cases and a dangerous one for that matter, as it blocks the removal of those conditions that are

Consumir es una forma de tener, y quizá la más importante en las ricas sociedades actuales. Consumir tiene cualidades ambiguas, alivia la angustia, porque lo que tiene el individuo no se lo puede quitar, pero también requiere consumir más, por que el consumo previo pierde su carácter satisfactorio. Los consumidores modernos pueden identificarse con la formula siguente: yo soy == lo que tengo y lo que consumo.

Deplina umanizare a omului necesit? trecerea de la orientarea c?tre posesie la orientarea centrat? pe activitate, de la egoism ?i egocentrism la solidaritate ?i altruism.

Dare dà più gioia che ricevere, non perché è privazione, ma perché in quell'atto mi sento vivo.

Well-being is the state of having arrived at the full development of reason: reason not in the sense of a merely intellectual judgment, but in that of grasping truth by "letting things be" (to use Heidegger's term) as they are.

Modern man's feeling of isolation and powerlessness is increased still further by the character which all his human relationships have assumed. The concrete relationship of one individual to another has lost its direct and human character and has assumed a spirit of manipulation and instrumentality. In all social and personal relations the laws of the market are the rule.

Whether or not the individual is healthy, is primarily not an individual matter, but depends on the structure of his society. A healthy society furthers man's capacity to love his fellow men, to work creatively, to develop his reason and objectivity, to have a sense of self which is based on the experience of his own productive powers.

Even to begin to understand the problem of faith one must differentiate between rational and irrational faith. By irrational faith I understand the belief (in a person or an idea) which is based on one's submission to irrational authority. In contrast, rational faith is a conviction which is rooted in one's own experience of thought or feeling.

God, originally a symbol for the highest value that we can experience within us, becomes, in the having mode, an idol. In the prophetic concept, an idol is a thing that we ourselves make and project our own powers into, thus impoverishing ourselves. We then submit to our creation and by our submission are in touch with ourselves in an alienated form. While I can have the idol because it is a thing, by my submission to it, it, simultaneously, has me.

El conocimiento empieza con la conciencia del engaño de lo que perciben nuestros sentidos en el sentido de que la mayoría de la gente esta semidespierta, semidormida, y no advierte que la mayor parte de lo que cree verdadero y evidente es una ilusión producida por la influencia sugestiva del mundo social donde vive. Así pues, el conocimiento empieza con la destrucción de las ilusiones, con la desilusión.

Kesatuan yang dicapai dalam kerja produktif tidaklah bersifat antarpribadi; kesatuan yang dicapai dalam peleburan orgiastik bersifat sementara; kesatuan yang dicapai oleh kesesuaian hanyalah kesatuan semu. Oleh karena itu, semuanya hanyalah jawaban parsial atas masalah eksistensi. Jawaban yang utuh terletak pada pencapaian penyatuan antarpribadi, peleburan dengan pribadi lain, dalam cinta. (Terjemahan Andri Kristiawan, Penerbit Gramedia)

En el amor se da la paradoja de dos seres que se convierten en uno y, no obstante, siguen siendo dos.

Mother's love is unconditional, it is all-protective, all-enveloping; because it is unconditional it can also not be controlled or acquired. Its presence gives the loved person a sense of bliss; its absence produces a sense of lostness and utter despair. Since mother loves her children because they are her children, and not because they are "good," obedient, or fulfill her wishes and commands, mother's love is based on equality.

Protestantism and Calvinism, while giving expression to a new feeling of freedom, at the same time constituted an escape from the burden of freedom

This book is a continuation of Escape from Freedom , written over fifteen years ago. In Escape from Freedom I tried to show that the totalitarian movements appealed to a deep-seated craving to escape from the freedom man had achieved in the modern world; that modern man, free from medieval ties, was not free to build a meaningful life based on reason and love, hence sought new security in submission to a leader, race or state.

Well-being means, finally, to drop one's Ego, to give up greed, to cease chasing after the preservation and the aggrandizement of the Ego, to be and to experience one's self in the act of being, not in having, preserving, coveting, using.