647 Quotes by Erich Fromm

There is undoubtedly a difference between people who manipulate other people and people who create things.

The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. True enough, robots do not rebel. But given man's nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become ''Golems,'' they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life.

Human history begins with man's act of disobedience which is at the very same time the beginning of his freedom and development of his reason.

To love somebody is not just a strong feeling - it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise.

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.

I shall become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice.

Love is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one's own self.

Like the effect of advertising upon the customer, the methods of political propaganda tend to increase the feeling of insignificance of the individual voter.

...in spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power-almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving. Could it be that only those things are considered worthy of being learned with which one can earn money or prestige, and that love, which "only" profits the soul, but is profitless in the modern sense, is a luxury we have no right to spend energy on?