Erich Fromm

Psychologist, Philosopher

Erich Fromm was a German social psychologist and philosopher known for his works on love, freedom, and humanistic psychology, particularly in 'The Art of Loving.'

Born
March 23, 1900
Died
March 18, 1980
Quotes
426
Rank
#79

Quote collection

Erich Fromm quotes (page 6 of 22)

426 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Erich Fromm Psychologist, Philosopher
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"The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one's narcissism. The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the outside world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears."

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Erich Fromm Psychologist, Philosopher
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"A dream is a microscope through which we look at the hidden occurrences in our soul."

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Erich Fromm Psychologist, Philosopher
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"Integrity simply means not violating one's own identity."

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Erich Fromm Psychologist, Philosopher
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"Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking processes attempt to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life."

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Erich Fromm Psychologist, Philosopher
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"While every human being has a capacity for love, its realization is one of the most difficult achievements."

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"We talk a great deal about Russia today, and I'm afraid that in twenty years, we and Russia will be more similar than different."

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"Society, and the family as its psycho social agent, has to solve a difficult problem: How to break a person's will without his being aware of it? Yet by a complicated process of indoctrination, rewards, punishments, and fitting ideology, it solves this task by and large so well that most people believe they are following their own will and are unaware that their will itself is conditioned and manipulated."

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"We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them."

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"But not only medicine, engineering, and painting are arts; living itself is an art in fact, the most important and at the same time the most difficult and complex art to be practiced by man."

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"It seems that great minds a hundred years ago saw what would happen today or tomorrow, while we to whom it is happening blind ourselves in order not to be disturbed in our daily routine."

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Erich Fromm Psychologist, Philosopher
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"Integrity simply means a willingness not to violate one's identity, in the many ways in which such violation is possible."

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"When people can see a vision and simultaneously recognize what can be done step by step in a concrete way to achieve it, they will begin to feel encouragement and enthusiasm instead of fright."

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"Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality. One can judge objectively to what extent a person has succeeded in his task, to what degree he has realized his potentialities. If he has failed in his task, one can recognize this failure and judge it for what it is - a moral failure."

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"Happiness is a very proud word of our whole cultural heritage."

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Erich Fromm Psychologist, Philosopher
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"Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one's country which is not part of one's love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship."

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