Erich Fromm - Escape from Freedom (1941)

14 Sourced Quotes

View all Erich Fromm Quotes
Man's biological weakness is the condition of human culture.

Erich Fromm
Freedom, although it has brought [modern man] independence and rationality, has made him isolated and, thereby, anxious and powerless.

Erich Fromm
There is nothing of which we are more ashamed than of not being ourselves. And there is nothing which brings us greater joy and happiness than to think, feel, and say what is ours.

Erich Fromm
The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.

Erich Fromm
Man's nature, his passions and anxieties, are a cultural product; as a matter of fact, man himself is the most important creation and achievement of the continuous human effort, the record of what we call history.

Erich Fromm
We forget that, although freedom of speech constitutes an important victory in the battle against old restraints, modern man is in a position where much of what "he" thinks and says are the things that everybody else thinks and says; that he has not acquired the ability to think originally - that is, for himself - which alone gives meaning to his claim that nobody can interfere with the expression of his thoughts.

Erich Fromm
The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man.

Erich Fromm
The more the drive toward life is thwarted, the stronger is the drive toward destruction; the more life is realized, the less is the strength of destructiveness. Destructiveness is the outcome of unlived life.

Erich Fromm
Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.

Erich Fromm
The kind of relatedness to the world may be noble or trivial, but even being related to the basest kind of pattern is immensely preferable to being alone.

Erich Fromm
If you do not smile, you are judged lacking in a 'pleasing personality' — and you need to have a pleasing personality if you want to sell your services, whether as a waitress, a salesman, or a physician.

Erich Fromm
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.

Erich Fromm
The right to express our thoughts means something only if we are able to have thoughts of our own

Erich Fromm
Death is never sweet, not even if it is suffered for the highest ideal.

Erich Fromm