Quote

Religion and nationalism, as well as any custom and any belief however absurd and degrading, if it only connects the individual with others, are refuges from what man most dreads: isolation.

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
Belief
Custom
Religion
Nationalism
Individual
Isolation
Others
Refuge
Wells
Dread
Refuges
Well
Customs
Dreads
Men
Absurd
Connects
However
Degrading

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The only concern which I have today is that we have a policy, a foreign policy, which enables us to avoid a catastrophe which, if one understands it properly, is indescribable.
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The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high it is the loss of his self.
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We substitute, or we rather hide, this fear of real intimacy by a superficial kind of friendliness, which is quite nice, but nevertheless, very shallow.
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Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.
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The most important influence on a child is the character of its parents, rather than this or that single event.
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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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We are concerned with things. We are concerned with success. We are concerned with money. We are concerned with instrumentalities.
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I believe that man is the product of natural evolution that is born from the conflict of being a prisoner and separated from nature, and from the need to find unity and harmony with it.
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The root of the word education is e-ducere, literally, to lead forth, or to bring out something which is potentially present.
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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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Free man is by necessity insecure, thinking man by necessity uncertain.
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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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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 lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.
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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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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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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.
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To live is to be born every minute. Death occurs when birth stops.
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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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Ger-mans love the ambiguous word, verbal assonances as ends in themselves,vague concepts. Anglosaxons are more clear.
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