647 Quotes by Erich Fromm

Freedom is not something we have, there is no such thing as freedom. Freedom is a quality of our personality: we are more or less free to resist pressure, more or less free to do what we want and to be ourselves. Freedom is always a question of increasing freedom one has, or decreasing it.

Automatons cannot love; they can exchange their “personality packages” and hope for a fair bargain.

The awareness of human separation, without reunion by love – is the source of shame. It is at the same time the source of guilt and anxiety.

The task of critique is not to denounce the ideals, but to show their transformation into ideologies, and to challenge the ideology in the name of the betrayed ideal.

In other words, ideas can become powerful forces, but only to the extent to which they are answers to specific human needs prominent in a given social character.

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.

The affirmation of one’s own life, happiness, growth and freedom, is rooted in one’s capacity to love.

The full humanization of man requires the breakthrough from the possession-centered to the activity-centered orientation, from selfishness and egotism to solidarity and altruism.

If you do not smile, you are judged lacking in a ‘pleasing personality’ – and you need to have a pleasing personality if you want to sell your services, whether as a waitress, a salesman, or a physician.