More Quotes by Erich Fromm
Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.
The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.
It takes a moment to tell someone you love them, but it takes a lifetime to prove it.
To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness
A society whose principles are acquisition, profit, and property produces a social character oriented around having, and once the dominant pattern is established, nobody wants to be an outsider, or indeed an outcast; in order to avoid this risk everybody adapts to the majority, who have in common only their mutual antagonism
Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
An illusion shared by everyone becomes a reality.
The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.
Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life forces as an investment which must bring him the maximum profit obtainable under existing market conditions.
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.
