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Quote by Erich Fromm

“Однако думается, что в нашем случае неверно было бы утверждать, будто «мы не знаем, какова наша действительная цель, пока не выработаем плана действий»[20]. Цели можно установить путем эмпирического анализа человека как целостного феномена, даже если мы еще не знаем средств для их достижения. Относительно некоторых целей уже теперь можно выдвинуть обоснованные утверждения, хотя в настоящий момент у них еще нет, так сказать, ни рук, ни ног. Наука о человеке может дать нам такую картину «модели человеческой природы», из которой можно вывести цели прежде, чем будут найдены средства для их достижения.”

Quote by Erich Fromm

Work

Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics

This work delves into the intersection of psychology and ethics, arguing that moral principles are not imposed externally but arise from within human nature. It discusses the capacity for self-awareness and choice, and how these factors influence ethical decision-making. The book challenges deterministic views of human behavior, emphasizing the individual's responsibility in creating personal ethical standards. It also explores concepts such as conscience, guilt, and the pursuit of self-realization as central to understanding moral psychology. more

Author

Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm, born on March 23, 1900 in Germany and died on March 18, 1980, was a renowned psychologist. His research covered a wide range of fields including anthropology, philosophy, and religion, particularly known for his studies on human psychology and interpersonal relationships. more

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“All men fear death. It’s a natural fear that consumes us all. We fear death because we feel that we haven’t loved well enough or loved at all, which ultimately are one and the same. However, when you make love with a truly great woman, one that deserves the utmost respect in this world and one that makes you feel truly powerful, that fear of death completely disappears. Because when you are sharing your body and heart with a great woman the world fades away. You two are the only ones in the entire universe. You conquer what most lesser men have never conquered before, you have conquered a great woman’s heart, the most vulnerable thing she can offer to another. Death no longer lingers in the mind. Fear no longer clouds your heart. Only passion for living, and for loving, become your sole reality. This is no easy task for it takes insurmountable courage. But remember this, for that moment when you are making love with a woman of true greatness you will feel immortal. I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds. Until it returns, as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it.”

“With so many trees in the city, you could see the spring coming each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one morning. Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life. This was the only truly sad time in Paris because it was unnatural. You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason. In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed.”

“He remembered the time he had hooked one of a pair of marlin. The male fish always let the female fish feed first and the hooked fish, the female, made a wild, panic-stricken, despairing fight that soon exhausted her, and all the time the male had stayed with her, crossing the line and circling with her on the surface. He had stayed so close that the old man was afraid he would cut the line with his tail which was sharp as a scythe and almost of that size and shape. When the old man had gaffed her and clubbed her, holding the rapier bill with its sandpaper edge and clubbing her across the top of her head until her colour turned to a colour almost like the backing of mirrors, and then, with the boy’s aid, hoisted her aboard, the male fish had stayed by the side of the boat. Then, while the old man was clearing the lines and preparing the harpoon, the male fish jumped high into the air beside the boat to see where the female was and then went down deep, his lavender wings, that were his pectoral fins, spread wide and all his wide lavender stripes showing. He was beautiful, the old man remembered, and he had stayed.”

“When you have two people who love each other, are happy and gay and really good work is being done by one or both of them, people are drawn to them as surely as migrating birds are drawn at night to a powerful beacon. If the two people were as solidly constructed as the beacon there would be little damage except to the birds. Those who attract people by their happiness and their performance are usually inexperienced. They do not know how not to be overrun and how to go away. They do not always learn about the good, the attractive, the charming, the soon-beloved, the generous, the understanding rich who have no bad qualities and who give each day the quality of a festival and who, when they have passed and taken the nourishment they needed, leave everything deader than the roots of any grass Attila's horses' hooves have ever scoured.”