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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.

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
May
Entity
Men
Sane
Separate
Defined
Aware
Identity
Awareness
Animal

More quotes by Erich Fromm

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We are all equal in the sense that no man must mean - must be - the means for the purposes of another man but each individual is an end in itself.
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It is true that one has to think first and then to act - but it's also true that if one has no possibility of acting, one's thinking kind of becomes empty and stupid.
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Modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is supposed to want.
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The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. True enough, robots do not rebel. But given man's nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become ''Golems',' they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life.
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Man does not only sell commodities, he sells himself and feels himself to be a commodity.
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I think if you ask people what their concept of heaven is, they would say, if they are honest, that it is a big department store, with new things every week - all the money to buy them, and maybe a little more than the neighbours.
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I would say our social relationships are relatively shallow. We are actually afraid to be intimate, with people - many people even with their wives and husbands.
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If faith cannot be reconciled with rational thinking, it has to be eliminated as an anachronistic remnant of earlier stages of culture and replaced by science dealing with facts and theories which are intelligible and can be validated.
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When blended with sexuality, the death instinct is transformed into more harmless impulses expressed in sadism or masochism.
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I only wish to be the fountain of love from which you drink, every drop promising eternal passion.
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Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous.
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Man can be conditioned to behave in almost every desired way but only almost.
Erich Fromm
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What is for me socialism is exactly the opposite of a bureaucratically-managed culture.
Erich Fromm
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Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision.
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When people can't handle God any more, they turn to religion.
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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?
Erich Fromm
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The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.
Erich Fromm
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Love is the active concern for the life and the growth of that which we love.
Erich Fromm
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Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.
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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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