Quotes from Erich Fromm

BaÅŸkalar?n?n deÄŸiÅŸebileceÄŸine inanç duymam için benim deÄŸiÅŸme deneyimini yaÅŸam?? olmam gerekir.

Antes de tudo, a prática de uma arte exige disciplina. Nunca serei bom em coisa alguma, se não a fizer de modo disciplinado; tudo que eu só puder fazer quando "estiver disposto" pode ser uma diversão bonita ou aprazível, mas nunca me tornarei mestre nessa arte.

At?l, hareketsiz duran yaÅŸam ölmeye eÄŸilimlidir; eÄŸer at?ll?k eksiksizse, ölüm gerçekleÅŸmiÅŸ demektir.

El amor es una actividad; si amo, estoy en un constante estado de preocupación activa por la persona amada, pero no sólo por ella. Porque seré incapaz de relacionarme activamente con la persona amada si soy perezoso, si no estoy en un constante estado de conciencia, alerta y actividad.

we are starved for any touch with that which, in most cultures, was provided for by religion or by the equivalent of religion, and with us, there is hardly anything which is worth while to mention.

modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is supposed to want. In order to accept this it is necessary to realize that to know what one really wants is not comparatively easy, as most people think, but one of the most difficult problems any human being has to solve.

Whoever insists on safety and security as primary conditions of life cannot have faith; whoever shuts himself off in a system of defense, where distance and possession are his means of security, makes himself a prisoner.

It is a sad commentary on our civilization, however, that war and suffering rather than peacetime living can mobilize human readiness to make sacrifices, and that the times of peace seem mainly to encourage selfishness.

The question of who claimed defense rightly is usually decided by the victors, and sometimes only much later by more objective historians.

Man cannot live as nothing but an object, as dice thrown out of a cup; he suffers severely when he is reduced to the level of a feeding or propagating machine, even if he has all the security he wants. Man seeks for drama and excitement; when he cannot get satisfaction on a higher level, he creates for himself the drama of destruction. [...] The human passions transform man from a mere thing into a hero, into a being that in spite of tremendous handicaps tries to make sense of life.

Friendliness, cheerfulness, and everything that a smile is supposed to express, become automatic responses which one turns on and off like an electric switch.

This attitude of buying, this religious expectation that there are endless things which we can get, and the almost orgastic pleasure in visualizing the wealth of new things you can buy, this is something which carries over in our attitude towards things other than new models. We have become consumers of everything, consumers of science, consumers of art, consumers of lectures, consumers of love, and the attitude is always the same.

Even his funeral, which he anticipates as his last great social affair, is in strict conformance with the pattern.

Fate may be rationalized philosophically as natural law or as destiny of man, religiously as the will of the Lord, ethically as duty - for the authoritarian character it is always a higher power outside the individual, towards which the individual can do nothing but submit. The authoritarian character worships the past. What has been, will eternally be. To wish or to work for something that has not yet been before is crime or madness.

O homem moderno pensa que perde alguma coisa — o tempo — quando não faz as coisas rapidamente; todavia, ele não sabe o que fazer com o tempo que ganha — a não ser matá-lo.

Genuine love increases the capacity to love and to give to others. The true lover loves the whole world, in his or her love for a specific person.

Joy, then, is what we experience in the process of growing nearer to the goal of becoming ourselves.

Tutku insan?n, amaçlar?na ulaÅŸma çabas? gösterme yeteneÄŸidir.

Das Wort Interesse stammt vom lateinischen inter-esse, das heisst dabeisein, beim anderen sein, nicht in sich selbst eingeschlossen sein.

If I am what I have and if I lose what I have who then am I?

The act of disobedience set Adam and Eve free and opened their eyes. They recognized each other as strangers and the world outside them as strange and even hostile. Their act of disobedience broke the primary bond with nature and made them individuals. "Original sin," far from corrupting man, set him free; it was the beginning of history. Man had to leave the Garden of Eden in order to learn to rely on his own powers and to become fully human.

The only haven for having a sense of identity is conformity. Being acceptable really means not being different from anybody else. Feeling inferior stems from feeling different, and no question is asked whether the difference is for the better or the worse.

As long as one was an integral part of that world, unaware of the possibilities and responsibilities of individual action, one did not need to be afraid of it. When one has become an individual , one stands alone and faces the world in all its perilous and overpowering aspects.

Ä°nsanoÄŸlunun bilinçlilik için ödediÄŸi bedel, güvensizliktir. Bu güvensizliÄŸi kald?rabilmek için, insansal koÅŸulun fark?nda olmak ve onu kabullenmek, baÅŸar?ya ulaÅŸaca?? garantisinden yoksun olmas?na kar??n, baÅŸar?s?zl??a ulaÅŸmayaca??n? ummak durumundad?r. Kesinlikten yoksundur, emin deÄŸildir; bir tek kesin öngörüde bulunabilir: ÖleceÄŸim.