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Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm Quotes

Psychologist

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Famous Erich Fromm Quotes

“Respect is not fear and awe; it...[is]the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his unique individuality. Respect, thus, implies the absence of exploitation. 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.”

WayWantPersonsPurposeGrowsAbilityUniqueRespectSakeIndividualityAbsenceAweServingExploitationAbility To See
Book:The Art of Loving: The Centennial Edition
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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.”

ThinkingWayFeelsShouldDoeCountryShowsHappensCareIndividualNumbersResponsibilityJudgingDevelopmentCitizensTake CareOur CountrySpecialists
Author:Erich Fromm
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“If we begin to say, "Well, maybe we can cope better with the Russians if we also transform ourselves into a managed society, if we, as somebody put it the other day, train our soldiers to be like the Turks, who have fought so bravely in Korea, if we are willing to change our whole way of life for the sake of so-called "survival," then I think we do exactly that which threatens our survival.”

IfsThinkingWayWellsWholeWillingSurvivalTrainSakeSoldierKoreaWilling To Change
Author:Erich Fromm
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“The pleasure in complete domination over another person (or other animate creature) is the very essence of the sadistic drive. Another way of formulating the same thought is to say that the aim of sadism is to transform man into a thing, something animate into something inanimate, since by complete and absolute control the living loses one essential quality of life - freedom.”

MenWayPersonsLosesPleasureQualityCreaturesEssentialsEssenceAbsolutesAimDominationAnother WayQuality Of LifeSadisticSadism
Book:The Heart of Man
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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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“Envy, jealousy, ambition, any kind of greed are passions; love is an action, the practice of human power, which can be practiced only in freedom and never as a result of compulsion. Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a "standing in," not a "falling for." In the most general way, the active character of love can be described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving.”

WayLifeGivingHumansKindCharacterActionFallPassionLove IsResultsPracticeActivityAmbitionStandingGreedActiveEnvyReceivingPassiveCompulsionLove PassionHuman PowerGiving Not Receiving
Book:THE ART OF LOVING
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“One of the worst forms of mental suffering is boredom, not knowing what to do with oneself and one's life. Even if man had no monetary, or any other reward, he would be eager to spend his energy in some meaningful way because he could not stand the boredom which inactivity produces.”

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Book:The Sane Society
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“Also in contemporary Western society the union with the group is the prevalent way of overcoming separateness. It is a union which the individual self disappears to a large extent, and where the aim is to belong to the heard. If I am like everybody else, if I have no feeling or thoughts which make me different, if I conform in custom, dress, ideas, to the pattern of the group, I am saved: saved from the frightening experience of aloneness.”

IfsWayIdeasDifferentSelfFeelingsIndividualHeardGroupsOvercomingAimDressesUnionsWesternPatternsDisappearSavedContemporaryCustomsFrighteningConformSeparatenessWestern SocietyArt Of Loving
Book:THE ART OF LOVING
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