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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.
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
Men
Miscellaneous
Illusion
Supposed
Wants
Modern
Actually
Lives
More quotes by Erich Fromm
The real opposition is that between the ego-bound man, whose existence is structured by the principle of having, and the free man, who has overcome his egocentricity.
Erich Fromm
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.
Erich Fromm
The Russians have succeeded in one thing: they have sold the world the idea that they represent socialism and the ideas of Marx,and we have done the greatest service to their propaganda by agreeing that that's what it is.
Erich Fromm
When an individual is awake, almost all he does and says is inspired by the model of behavior that the society imposes,even without his being aware of it.
Erich Fromm
In times of change, learners inherit the earth
Erich Fromm
To love somebody is not just a strong feeling - it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise.
Erich Fromm
Man's biological weakness is the condition of human culture.
Erich Fromm
Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.
Erich Fromm
I believe that the unity of man as opposed to other living things derives from the fact that man is the conscious life of himself. Man is conscious of himself, of his future, which is death, of his smallness, of his impotence he is aware of others as others man is in nature, subject to its laws even if he transcends it with his thought.
Erich Fromm
I believe that the experience of love is the most human and humanizing act that it is given to man to enjoy and that it, like reason, makes no sense if conceived in a partial way.
Erich Fromm
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
In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.
Erich Fromm
The narcissistic, the domineering, the possessive woman can succeed in being a loving mother as long as the child is small. Only the really loving woman, the woman who is happier in giving than in taking, who is firmly rooted in her own existence, can be a loving mother when the child is in the process of separation.
Erich Fromm
What is for me socialism is exactly the opposite of a bureaucratically-managed culture.
Erich Fromm
The criterion of mental health is not one of individual adjustment to a given social order, but a universal one, valid for all men, of giving a satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
Erich Fromm
There is only one reality: the act of feeling ourselves in the process of making choices.
Erich Fromm
The paradoxical and tragic situation of man is that his conscience is weakest when he needs it most.
Erich Fromm
Free man is by necessity insecure, thinking man by necessity uncertain.
Erich Fromm
The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist.
Erich Fromm
Man may be defined as the animal that can say ''I,'' that can be aware of himself as a separate entity.
Erich Fromm
