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Infantile love follows the principle: I love because I am loved. Mature love follows the principle: I am loved because I love. Immature love says: I love you because I need you. Mature love says: I need you because I love you.

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
Principle
Loved
Principles
Immaturity
Says
Infantile
Need
Immature
Needs
Follows
Love
Maturity
Mature

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To be loved because of one's merit, because one deserves it, always leaves doubt maybe I did not please the person whom I want to love me, maybe this, or that - there is always a fear that love could disappear.
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Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision-making which replace the principles of instincts.
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Man always dies before he is fully born.
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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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To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.
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That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.
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The most important misunderstanding seems to me to lie in a confusion between the human necessities which I consider part of human nature, and the human necessities as they appear as drives, needs, passions, etc., in any given historical period.
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Modern man thinks he loses something - time - when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains, except kill it.
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Politics and religious leaders [are hindered] by their egotism.
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The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.
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People do not see that the main question is not : Am I loved? which is to a large extent the question : Am I approved of? Am I protected? Am I admired? The main question is: Can I love?
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Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?
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Man does not only sell commodities, he sells himself and feels himself to be a commodity.
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Giving is the highest expression of potency.
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It is a tragedy that most of us die before we have begun to live.
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Man may be defined as the animal that can say ''I,'' that can be aware of himself as a separate entity.
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I would define myself as a Marxian, and that means of course also as a humanist.
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The affirmation of one's own life, happiness, growth and freedom, is rooted in one's capacity to love.
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Man can be conditioned to behave in almost every desired way but only almost.
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Creativity is the ability to see and to respond.
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