40 Quotes By Erich Fromm


Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?
Erich Fromm on age

The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.
Erich Fromm on art

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
Erich Fromm on courage

Man always dies before he is fully born.
Erich Fromm on death

We all dream we do not understand our dreams, yet we act as if nothing strange goes on in our sleep minds, strange at least by comparison with the logical, purposeful doings of our minds when we are awake.
Erich Fromm on dreams

Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world.
Erich Fromm on dreams

Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?
Erich Fromm on education

Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.
Erich Fromm on equality

Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.
Erich Fromm on faith

There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.
Erich Fromm on freedom

The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots.
Erich Fromm on future

In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.
Erich Fromm on god

Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world.
Erich Fromm on great

To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.
Erich Fromm on hope

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.
Erich Fromm on life

Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'
Erich Fromm on love

In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.
Erich Fromm on love

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
Erich Fromm on love

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.
Erich Fromm on love

The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent.
Erich Fromm on love