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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.

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
Live
Materialism
Things
Manipulate
World
Consumption
Sane
Connection
Connections
Consumerism
Growth
Consume
History
Manipulation

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Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved, rather than that of loving, of one's capacity to love. Hence the problem to them is how to be loved, how to be lovable.
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I think American man unconsciously hates his work very often, because he feels trapped by it... imprisoned by it... because he feels that he is spending most of his energy for something which has no meaning in itself.
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In times of change, learners inherit the earth
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Independent of others and in concert with others, your main task in life is to do what you can best do and become what you can potentially be.
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As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask.
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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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It is notorious that no war between countries elicits as much hate and cruelty as civil war, in which there is no lack of acquaintance between the two warring sides.
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Love is not easy. All great religions postulate love as one of the greatest accomplishments. If it were that easy, or as easy as most people think, certainly, the great religious leaders would have been rather naive.
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[Carl Gustav] Jung was not right when he said that the unconscious message is always written clearly and so there is no need to seek to discover the distortions, because one must recognize that many dreams are more or less distortions.
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To take the difficulties, setbacks and sorrows of life as a challenge to overcome makes us stronger, rather than unjust punishment which should not happen to us, requires faith and courage.
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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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When people can't handle God any more, they turn to religion.
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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.
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I want to mention that Marx shares something, if you don't mind the comparison, with the Old Testament: many people talk about him, but nobody has read him.
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Power on the one side, fear on the other, are always the buttresses on which irrational authority is built.
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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.
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I need you because I love you.
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If the Russians claim they are Socialist, this is just, I would say, a lie. They have no socialism at all. They have what I would call a state capitalism.
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You have to stop to change direction.
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Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair.
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