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Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm Quotes

Psychologist

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Famous Erich Fromm Quotes

“Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?”

LoveFeelsShouldChildrenAgeHappinessEducationFamilyLearningSocietyAdultsResponsibleEducation SystemGreat EducationTeaching And LearningSchools And EducationChildren LearningChildren EducationStudents And EducationStudent LearningChildren And EducationEducation For AllImportance Of EducationAdult EducationAdult Learning
Book:The Sane Society
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“Man is the only animal who does not feel at home in nature, who can feel evicted from paradise, the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem that he has to solve and from which he cannot escape. He cannot go back to the prehuman state of harmony with nature, and he does not know where he will arrive if he goes forward. Man's existential contradiction results in a state of constant disequilibrium. This disequilibrium distinguishes him from the animal, which lives, as it were, in harmony with nature.”

IfsKnowsMenFeelsDoeStatesProblemHomeAnimalResultsExistenceHarmonyConstantSolveParadiseContradictionExistentialDisequilibrium
Book:The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
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“We have, in the same way, relegated our own responsibility in what happens to our country to the specialists, who are supposed to take care of it, and the individual citizen does not feel that he can judge, and even that he should judge, and take any responsibility. I think there are quite a number of recent developments which show that.”

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Author:Erich Fromm
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“Alienation as we find it in modern society is almost total… Man has created a world of man-made things as it never existed before. He has constructed a complicated social machine to administer the technical machine he built. The more powerful and gigantic the forces are which he unleashes, the more powerless he feels himself as a human being. He is owned by his creations, and has lost ownership of himself.”

MenWorldFeelsHumansMadeLostForceSocialHuman BeingsPowerfulModernCreationBuiltMachinesComplicatedOwnershipPowerlessAlienationModern SocietyMan Made Things
Author:Erich Fromm
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“Modern capitalism needs men who cooperate smoothly and in large numbers; who want to consume more and more; and whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and anticipated. It needs men who feel free and independent, not subject to any authority or principle or conscience-- yet willing to be commanded, to do what is expected of them, to fit into the social machine without friction; who can be guided without force, led without leaders, prompted without aim-- except the one to make good, to be on the move, to function, to go ahead.”

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Author:Erich Fromm
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“If I love the other person, I feel one with him or her, but with him as he is, not as I need him to be as an object for my use. Respect thus implies the absence of exploitation: it allows the other to be, to change and to develop 'in his own ways.' This requires a commitment to know the other as a separate being, and not merely as a reflection of my own ego. According to Velleman this loving willingness and ability to see the other as they really are is foregrounded in our willingness to risk self-exposure.”

IfsKnowsWayNeedsFeelsPersonsSelfUseMy OwnAbilityRiskObjectsEgoReflectionCommitmentAbsenceWillingnessExploitationExposureAbility To SeeI Need Him
Author:Erich Fromm
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“I believe that love is the main key to open the doors to the "growth" of man. Love and union with someone or something outside of oneself, union that allows one to put oneself into relationship with others, to feel one with others, without limiting the sense of integrity and independence. Love is a productive orientation for which it is essential that there be present at the same time: concern, responsibility, and respect for and knowledge of the object of the union.”

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Book:On Being Human
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“The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology. The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation the fully schizophrenic person feels. He feels at ease among those who suffer from the same deformation; in fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated in the insane society - and he may suffer so much from the incapacity to communicate that it is he who may become psychotic.”

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Author:Erich Fromm
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“Our whole culture is based on the appetite for buying, on the idea of a mutually favorable exchange. .... For the man an attractive girl - and for the woman an attractive man - are the prizes they are after. 'attractive' usually means a nice package of qualities which are popular and sought after on the personality market. What specifically makes a person attractive depends on the fashion of the time, physically as well as mentally. ... Two persons thus fall in love when they feel they have found the best object available on the market, considering the limitations of their own exchange values.”

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Book:The Art of Loving: The Centennial Edition
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“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet 'for sale', who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society.”

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Book:The art of being
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