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Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.

Erich Fromm

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Erich Fromm
Age: 79 †
Born: 1900
Born: March 23
Died: 1980
Died: March 18
Philosopher
Psychoanalyst
Psychologist
Sociologist
University Teacher
Writer
Frankfurt/Main
Evolution
Animal
Existence
History
Problem
Men
Life
Disequilibrium
Solve

More quotes by Erich Fromm

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As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask.
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We are not on the way to greater individualism, but are becoming an increasingly manipulated mass civilization.
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Integrity simply means a willingness not to violate one's identity, in the many ways in which such violation is possible.
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For [Sigmund ] Freud, the manifest dream, that is that which we remember after waking,is like a code message, that can be interpreted, provided the right key is avail-able, for example the method of free association.
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We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.
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The experience of separateness arouses anxiety it is, indeed, the source of all anxiety.
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Free man is by necessity insecure, thinking man by necessity uncertain.
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In the sleeping state, instead, one is much more oneself, even if society never ceases to intervene.
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Can freedom become a burden, too heavy for man to bear, something he tries to escape from?..Is there not also, perhaps, besides an innate desire for freedom, an instinctive wish for submission?
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I would say, compared with the 19th century, compared with most previous history, this is as good or better a society than any which man has ever made. But that doesn't mean it is such a good one.
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Man absolutely cannot live by himself.
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It is essential... that discipline should not be practised like a rule imposed on oneself from the outside, but that it becomes an expression of one's own will that it is felt as pleasant, and that one slowly accustoms oneself to a kind of behaviour which one would eventually miss, if one stopped practising it.
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Critical and radical thought will only bear fruit when it is blended with the most precious quality man is endowed with - the love of life
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I think our danger is that we talk one thing, and we feel and act another thing.
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To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.
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When people can see a vision and simultaneously recognize what can be done step by step in a concrete way to achieve it, they will begin to feel encouragement and enthusiasm instead of fright.
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Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into a sadist or a destroyer.
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The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist.
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Once they are through the process of education, most people lose the capacity of wondering, of being surprised. They feel they ought to know everything, and hence that it is a sign of ignorance to be surprised or puzzled by anything.
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Like the effect of advertising upon the customer, the methods of political propaganda tend to increase the feeling of insignificance of the individual voter.
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