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Having lost religious faith and the humanistic values bound up with it, he [man] concentrated on technical and material values and lost the capacity for deep emotional experiences, for the joy and sadness that accompany 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
Values
Experiences
Faith
Material
Humanistic
Lost
Materials
Accompany
Men
Capacity
Concentrated
Deep
Technical
Emotional
Bound
Joy
Bounds
Religious
Sadness

More quotes by Erich Fromm

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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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Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world.
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In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.
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Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair.
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The fact is that the culture does not have only positive effects on our intellectual and moral functions but also negative effects.
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Free man is by necessity insecure, thinking man by necessity uncertain.
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Man's biological weakness is the condition of human culture.
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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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Power on the one side, fear on the other, are always the buttresses on which irrational authority is built.
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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.
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The paradoxical and tragic situation of man is that his conscience is weakest when he needs it most.
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Loving becomes, and the ability to love, becomes one of the most important things in life.
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I would define myself as a Marxian, and that means of course also as a humanist.
Erich Fromm
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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.
Erich Fromm
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The most important influence on a child is the character of its parents, rather than this or that single event.
Erich Fromm
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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.
Erich Fromm
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Productive work, love and thought are possible only if a person can be, when necessary, quiet and alone. To be able to listen to oneself is the necessary condition for relating oneself to others.
Erich Fromm
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For [Karl] Marx what counts is man. He is the root of everythingwhile for capitalism, the aim are things, profit, and man is only a means to gain them. As an authentically religious individual, Marx could not be other than against religion.
Erich Fromm
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All genuine ideals have one thing in common: they express the desire for something which is not yet accomplished but which is desirable for the purpose of the growth and happiness of the individual.
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The revolutionary and critical thinker is in a certain way always outside of his society while of course he is at the same time also in it.
Erich Fromm