Erich Fromm

Modern man thinks he loses something – time – when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains, except kill it.

Erich Fromm

Most people see the problem of love primarily as that of being loved, rather than that of loving, of one’s capacity to love. Hence the problem to them is how to be loved, how to be lovable.

Erich Fromm

Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.

Erich Fromm

Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair.

Erich Fromm

Productive work, love, and thought are possible only if a person can be, when necessary, quiet and alone with himself. To be able to listen to oneself is a prerequisite for the ability to listen to others; to be at home with oneself is the necessary condition for relating oneself to others.

Erich Fromm

Selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.

Erich Fromm

The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.

Erich Fromm

The only truly affluent are those who do not want more than they have.

Erich Fromm

There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.

Erich Fromm

There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers.

Erich Fromm