50 Instructive Erich Fromm Quotes
Erich Fromm (born March 23, 1900, Frankfurt am Main, Germany – died March 18, 1980, Muralto, Switzerland) was a German-born psychoanalyst and social philosopher associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.
Some of Fromm’s significant works include Escape from Freedom (1941), Man for himself (1947), The Sane Society (1955), The Art of Loving (1956), and To Have or to Be? (1976).
Key Takeaways
- Fromm was known for the concept that freedom was a part of human nature that we either escape or embrace. He believed that the psyche of an individual was the product of society.
- Fromm was one of the founders of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology, located in New York City.
Below is a collection of the best Erich Fromm quotes on love, life, death, and more.
Table of Contents
Best Erich Fromm Quotes
Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.Escape from Freedom (1941), Chapter IV, Page 115
Boredom is nothing but the experience of a paralysis of our productive powers.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 5, Page 202
The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter III, Page 45
Tribes like this are the truly affluent societies — not because they are so wealthy but because they do not want more than they have.For the Love of Life (1986), Page 47
I am convinced that boredom is one of the greatest tortures. If I were to imagine Hell, it would be the place where you were continually bored.The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays on Religion, Psychology and Culture (1963), Page 181
To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (1968), Chapter II, Page 9
If I am what I have and if what I have is lost, who then am I?To Have or to Be? (1976), Part I, Chapter VI, Page 109
The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself, is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity, without panic and undue fear.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 5, Page 196
The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.Escape from Freedom (1941), Chapter VII, Page 259
Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called “equality.”The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 16
Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter IV, Page 131
Authority is not a quality one person ‘has,’ in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 5, Page 95
One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.ABC TV (May 25, 1958)
Reason is man’s faculty for grasping the world by thought, in contradiction to intelligence, which is man’s ability to manipulate the world with the help of thought. Reason is man’s instrument for arriving at the truth, intelligence is man’s instrument for manipulating the world more successfully; the former is essentially human, the latter belongs to the animal part of man.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 3, Page 64
Most people call certain ideas “crazy” because “sane” is only that which is within the frame of reference of conventional thought.Greatness and Limitation of Freud's Thought (1979), Chapter 1, Page 6
Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. “Patriotism” is its cult.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 3, Page 58
The sadistic person is as dependent on the submissive person as the latter is on the former; neither can live without the other.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 20
Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter IV, Page 206
Respect is not fear and awe; it denotes, in accordance with the root of the word (respicere = to look at), the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his individuality and uniqueness.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 28
Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 8, Page 346
Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 23
Erich Fromm Quotes on Love
Immature love says: “I love you because I need you.” Mature love says: “I need you because I love you.”The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 41
Mother’s love is bliss, is peace, it need not be acquired, it need not be deserved.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 39
Find more about Erich Fromm on Amazon
Love is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s own self.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 3, Page 31
Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one “object” of love.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 46
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter IV, Page 133
Love is often nothing but a favorable exchange between two people who get the most of what they can expect, considering their value on the personality market.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 5, Page 147
To love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter IV, Page 127
Care and responsibility are constituent elements of love, but without respect for and knowledge of the beloved person, love deteriorates into domination and possessiveness.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter III, Page 101
In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 21
In erotic love, two people who were separate become one. In motherly love, two people who were one become separate. The mother must not only tolerate, she must wish and support the child’s separation.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 51
Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 3, Page 58
Love is an action, the practice of a human power, which can be practiced only in freedom and never as the result of a compulsion.The Art of Loving (1956), Chapter II, Page 22
Erich Fromm Quotes about Man
Man always dies before he is fully born.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter III, Page 91
The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind – not the fiend or the sadist.The Heart of Man, its genius for good and evil (1964), Chapter 1, Page 22
The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 9, Page 360
Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter III, Page 40
Man’s biological weakness is the condition of human culture.Escape from Freedom (1941), Chapter II, Page 33
Men are born equal but they are also born different.Escape from Freedom (1941), Chapter VII, Page 263
What is it that distinguishes man from animals? It is not his upright posture.For the Love of Life (1986), Page 17
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.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter IV, Page 237
Erich Fromm Quotes on Life and Death
There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter III, Page 45
There is only one meaning of life: the act of living itself.Escape from Freedom (1941), Chapter VII, Page 263
We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 5, Page 134
Who will tell whether one happy moment of love, or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies?The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 5, Page 150
To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.Man for Himself: An Inquiry Into the Psychology of Ethics (1947), Chapter IV, Page 162
In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead; in the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.The Sane Society (1955), Chapter 9, Page 360