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In our enthusiasm to dominate nature and to produce more material good - goods - we have transformed means into ends.

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
Material
Materials
Produce
Means
Nature
Dominate
Ends
Transformed
Mean
Goods
Good
Enthusiasm

More quotes by Erich Fromm

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We are not on the way to greater individualism, but are becoming an increasingly manipulated mass civilization.
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I would define myself as a Marxian, and that means of course also as a humanist.
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I would say, compared with the 19th century, compared with most previous history, this is as good or better a society than any which man has ever made. But that doesn't mean it is such a good one.
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I want to mention that Marx shares something, if you don't mind the comparison, with the Old Testament: many people talk about him, but nobody has read him.
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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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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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What is for me socialism is exactly the opposite of a bureaucratically-managed culture.
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The essential difference between the unhappy, neurotic type person and him of great joy is the difference between get and give.
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People think that to love is simple, but that to find the right object to love - or to be loved by - is difficult.
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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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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.
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Happiness is a very proud word of our whole cultural heritage.
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Love is active penetration of the other person, in which my desire to know is stilled by union. In the act of fusion I know you, I know myself, I know everybody - and I know nothing.
Erich Fromm
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Every society by its own practice of living and by the mode of relatedness, of feelings, and perceiving, develops a system of categories which determines the forms of awareness.
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That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.
Erich Fromm
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There is only one reality: the act of feeling ourselves in the process of making choices.
Erich Fromm
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Boredom is nothing but the experience of a paralysis of our productive powers and the sense of unaliveness. Among the evils of life, there are few which are as painful as boredom, and consequently every attempt is made to avoid it.
Erich Fromm
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I think we got off the track, as many societies do, who follow successfully one aim, and yet are not capable of seeing at what point the pursuit of this aim prevents them from following a more total aim. That is to say, they get into a blind alley.
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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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If you take a salesman, who sells a useless commodity, he feels like a fraud.
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