647 Quotes by Erich Fromm

True love is like a pair of socks: you gotta have two and they’ve gotta match.

Lack of concentration makes one tired, while concentration wakes one up.

Jesus and Satan appear here as repre sentatives of two opposite principles. Satan is the representative of material consumption and of power over nature and Man. Jesus is the representative of being, and of the idea that not-having is the premise for being. The world has followed Satan’s principles, since the time of the gospels.

The attitude inherent in consumerism is that of swallowing the whole world. The consumer is the eternal suckling crying for the bottle.

To transcend nature, to be alienated from nature and from another human being, finds man naked, ashamed. He is alone and free, yet powerless and afraid.

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

My duty not to remain passive in a world which seems to be moving toward self-chosen catastrophe.

I want the loved person to grow and unfold for his own sake, and in his own ways, and not for the purpose of serving me. If.

You do many things at once; you read, listen to the radio, talk, smoke, eat, drink. You are the consumer with the open mouth, eager and ready to swallow everything – pictures, liquor, knowledge. This lack of concentration is clearly shown in our difficulty in being alone with ourselves. To sit still, without talking, smoking, reading, drinking, is impossible for most people. They become nervous and fidgety, and must do something with their mouth or their hands.