Erich Fromm: Our society is a society of chronically unhappy people.
I offer 25 quotations of Erich Fromm, filled with a special meaning.
The main task of a person's life is to give life to himself to become what he is potentially. The most important fruit of his efforts is his own personality.
We don't have anyone to explain anything to report, yet our actions do not hurt or infringe on others. How many lives have been ruined by this need to "explain", which usually implies that you are "understood", that is, acquitted. Let them judge by your actions, and by them — about your true intentions, but know that a free person should explain something only to himself-his mind and consciousness — and to those few who have the right to demand an explanation.
Human life is impossible without faith. The question is whether the faith of future generations will be rational or irrational. Will it be faith in leaders, machines, success; or will it be unwavering faith in man and his strength, based on the experience of his own fruitful activity.
Man builds machines that act like people and creates people that act like machines.
If a person can not live under compulsion, not automatically, but spontaneously, then he realizes himself as an active creative person and understands that life has only one meaning – life itself.
For many of us, the problem with love is that we want to be loved, but we do not know how to love. And that is the whole problem of humanity — egoism, which leads us to suffering.
Happiness is not a gift from God, but an achievement of what a person achieves with his inner fruitfulness.
Everything is important for a person, except for his own life and the art of living. It exists for anything but itself.
Our society is a society of chronically unfortunate people, tormented by loneliness and fears, dependent and humiliated, prone to destruction and experiencing the joy of already having managed to "kill time", which they are constantly trying to save.
The unhappy fate of many people is a consequence of their choices. They are neither alive nor dead. Life turns out to be a burden, an invaluable occupation, and business – only a means of protection from the torments of being in the Kingdom of shadows.
Love begins to manifest itself only when we love those who can not be used for their own purposes.
Knowing our true desires is much more difficult than most of us think; it is one of the most difficult problems of human existence. We are desperately trying to get away from this problem by taking standard goals for our own.
I am sure that no one can "save" his neighbor, making a choice for him. All that can help one person to another-is to reveal to him truthfully and with love, but without sentiment and illusions, the existence of alternatives.
Every new step can lead to failure-that is one of the reasons why people fear freedom.
If child love comes from the principle: "I love because I love", then mature love comes from the principle: "I love because I love". Immature love yells: "I love you because I need you!" Mature love says: "I need you because I love you."
Man needs the drama of life and experience; and if at the highest level of his achievements he does not find satisfaction, then he creates a drama of destruction.
Most people believe that love depends on the object, not on their own ability to love. They are even convinced that since they do not love anyone but the "beloved" person, it proves the power of their love. Here appears a misconception-installation on the object. This is similar to the state of a person who wants to paint, but instead of learning to paint, says that he just has to find a decent nature: when it happens, he will paint beautifully, and it will happen by itself. But if I really love someone, I love all people, I love the world, I love life. If I can tell someone "I love you", I should be able to say "I love everything in you", "I love the whole world because of you, and I love myself in you".
The character of the child is a cast of the character of the parents, it develops in response to their character.
If a person is able to fully love, he loves himself; if he is able to love only others, he can not love at all.
It is believed that love is the top of love, while in fact it is the beginning and only the possibility of finding love. It is believed that this is the result of the mysterious and attraction of two people to each other, a certain event that occurs by itself. Yes, loneliness and sexual desires make love an easy thing, and there is nothing mysterious here, but this is the success that goes as quickly as it came. You don't accidentally become a favorite; your own ability to love causes love as well as interest makes a person interesting.
In your loved one you need to find yourself, not lose yourself in it.
Oddly enough, but the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love.
As much as it is important to avoid empty talk, it is equally important to avoid a bad society. By "bad society" I mean not only vicious people — their society should be avoided because their influence is oppressive and harmful. I am also referring to the society of "zombies", whose soul is dead, although the body is alive; people with empty thoughts and words, people who do not talk, but talk, do not think, and Express popular opinions.
A man who cannot create wants to destroy.
Man is the center and purpose of his life. The development of one's personality, the realization of all inner potential is the highest goal, which simply cannot change or depend on other supposedly higher goals.