Erich Fromm Zitate 37 tiefsinnige Weisheiten über Liebe, menschliche Natur und Gesellschaft

„Unreife Liebe sagt: Ich liebe dich, weil ich dich brauche. Die reife Liebe sagt: Ich brauche dich, weil ich dich liebe.“

„Wenn ich zu einem anderen sagen kann: "Ich liebe dich", muss ich auch sagen können: "Ich liebe in dir auch alle anderen, ich liebe durch dich die ganze Welt, ich liebe in dir auch mich selbst.“

„Die Gier ist immer das Ergebnis einer inneren Leere.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

„Die meisten Menschen sehen das Problem der Liebe in erster Linie als das Problem, selbst geliebt zu werden, statt zu lieben und lieben zu können.“

Die Kraft der Liebe

„Liebe ist die einzig vernünftige und befriedigende Antwort auf die Frage nach dem Sinn der menschlichen Existenz.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

„Die heutige Gesellschaft predigt das Ideal einer nicht-individualisierten Gleichheit, weil sie menschliche Atome braucht, die sich untereinander völlig gleichen, damit sie im Massenbetrieb glatt und reibungslos funktionieren, damit alle den gleichen Anweisungen folgen und jeder trotzdem überzeugt ist, das zu tun, was er will. Genauso wie die moderne Massenproduktion die Standardisierung der Erzeugnisse verlangt, so verlangt auch der gesellschaftliche Prozess die Standardisierung des Menschen, und diese Standardisierung nennt man dann "Gleichheit".“

Zitate über Menschen von Erich Fromm

„Die Inhaber der Autorität und jene, die Nutzen daraus ziehen, müssen die Menschen von dieser Fiktion überzeugen und ihr realistisches, das heißt kritisches Denkvermögen einschläfern. Jeder denkende Mensch kennt die Methoden der Propaganda, Methoden, durch die die kritische Urteilskraft zerstört und der Verstand eingelullt wird, bis er sich Klischees unterwirft, die die Menschen verdummen, weil sie sie abhängig machen, und sie der Fähigkeit berauben, ihren Augen und ihrer Urteilskraft zu vertrauen. Diese Funktion, an die sie glauben, macht sie für die Realität blind.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

„Viele Menschen glauben lieber, daß unser Hang zur Gewalt und zur atomaren Auseinandersetzung auf biologische Faktoren zurückzuführen ist, die sich unserer Kontrolle entziehen, als daß sie die Augen aufmachen und erkennen, daß die von uns selbst verursachten sozialen, politischen und ökonomischen Umstände daran schuld sind.“

Kapitel: Autorität ausüben - S. 56-57
Haben oder Sein. Die seelischen Grundlagen einer neuen Gesellschaft

— Erich Fromm, buch Anatomie der menschlichen Destruktivität

Erich Fromm, "Anatomie der menschlichen Destruktivität", S. 33
Zitate

„Die Normalsten sind die Kränkesten. Und die Kranken sind die Gesündesten."- Das Zusichkommen des Menschen. Fernsehinterview mit Micaela Lämmle und Jürgen Lodemann, in: Basler Magazin, Basel, Nr. 47 (24.12.1977), S. 3. Wiederveroeffentlicht in: Erich Fromm als Vordenker: "Haben oder Sein" im Zeitalter der ökologischen Krise, Rainer Funk, Erich Fromm, Marko Ferst, Burkhard Bierhoff, Johannes Rau u. a., Edition Zeitsprung, Berlin 2002. S. 18 Google Books“

„Wir sind eine Gesellschaft notorisch unglücklicher Menschen: einsam, von Ängsten gequält, deprimiert, destruktiv, abhängig - jene Menschen, die froh sind, wenn es ihnen gelingt, jene Zeit 'totzuschlagen', die sie ständig einzusparen versuchen.“

— Erich Fromm, buch Haben oder Sein

Haben oder Sein. Die seelischen Grundlagen einer neuen Gesellschaft, Überarbeitet von Rainer Funk, 36. Aufl., dtv Muenchen 2009. S. 18
"We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent — people who are glad we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save." - To Have or to Be? Continuum 1996. p. 5
Haben oder Sein. Die seelischen Grundlagen einer neuen Gesellschaft

„Durch die Maschine ist die Zeit zur Beherrscherin des Menschen geworden.“

— Erich Fromm, buch Haben oder Sein

Haben oder Sein. Die seelischen Grundlagen einer neuen Gesellschaft, überarbeitet v. Rainer Funk, 36. Aufl., dtv München 2009. S. 160. Aus dem Englischen von Brigitte Stein. ISBN 978-3-423-34234-6 book2look.com http://book2look.com/vBook.aspx?id=9783423342346
"Via the machine, time has become our ruler." - To Have or to Be? Continuum 1996. p. 129
Haben oder Sein. Die seelischen Grundlagen einer neuen Gesellschaft

Zitate über Liebe von Erich Fromm

„In der Liebe kommt es zu dem Paradoxon, daß zwei Wesen eins werden und trotzdem zwei bleiben.“

„Nichts fördert das Kreative mehr als die Liebe, vorausgesetzt, sie ist echt.“

"Die Kunst des Liebens", Frankfurt/M 1992 S. 31, Verlag Ullstein GmbH
"In the experience of love the paradox happens that two people become one, and remain two at the same time." - The Sane Society. Fawcett 1985. p. 37
Die Kunst des Liebens

„Man schließt zu zweit einen Bund gegen die Welt und hält dann diesen égoisme à deux irrtümlich für Liebe und Vertrautheit.“

Pathologie der Normalität

„Liebe ist das Kind der Freiheit, niemals das der Beherrschung.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

„Wenn es- wie ich aufzuzeigen versuchte - wahr ist, daß die Liebe die einzig befriedigende Antwort auf das Problem der menschlichen Existenz ist, dann muß jede Gesellschaft, die die Entwicklung der Liebe ausschließt, letzten Endes an ihrem Widerspruch zu den grundlegenden Notwendigkeiten der menschlichen Natur zugrunde gehen.“

"Die Kunst des Liebens", Frankfurt/M 1992 S.39, Verlag Ullstein GmbH
"love is the child of freedom, never that of domination." - The Sane Society
Die Kunst des Liebens
Variante: Die Liebe ist das Kind der Freiheit,
niemals der Beherrschung

„[…] kann Lust dennoch kein Wertkriterium sein. Denn es gibt Menschen, die an der Unterwerfung und nicht an der Freiheit Lust empfinden, für die nicht Liebe, sondern Haß, nicht produktive Arbeit, sondern Ausbeutung Lust bedeutet.“

"Die Kunst des Liebens", Frankfurt/M (u.a.) 1956. S. 170.
"If it is true, as I have tried to show, that love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence, then any society which excludes, relatively, the development of love, must in the long run perish of its own contradiction with the basic necessities of human nature." - The Art of Loving (1956). Chapter 2
Die Kunst des Liebens

„Wahrheit wird niemals durch Gewalt widerlegt.“

Psychoanalyse und Ethik, in: Analytische Charaktertheorie Band II. Autorisierte Übersetzung von Liselotte und Ernst Mickel. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1980. S. 14
"[...] pleasure cannot be a criterion of value. For there are people who enjoy submission and not freedom, who derive pleasure from hate and not from love, from exploitation and not from productive work.
Psychoanalyse und Ethik

Erich Fromm Zitate und Sprüche

„Das Wort "Interesse" stammt vom lateinischen inter-esse, das heisst "dabeisein", "beim anderen sein", nicht in sich selbst eingeschlossen sein.“

Die Kraft der Liebe

Über Wahrheit

„Die Idee, dass man die Wahrheit auf dem Weg des Denkens finden könne, führt nicht nur zum Dogma, sondern auch zur Wissenschaft.“

Über Essen

„Marx geht es wie der Bibel: Er wird viel zitiert und kaum verstanden.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

Wissenschaft, Denken, Idee, Über Wahrheit

„[Erkenntnis] ist nur möglich, wenn ich mein eigenes Interesse transzendiere und den anderen so sehe, wie er wirklich ist.“

Humanismus als reale Utopie

„[Der Mensch] würde dem Wahnsinn verfallen, wenn er sich nicht aus diesem Gefängnis befreien könnte - wenn er nicht in irgendeiner Form seine Hände nach anderen Menschen ausstrecken und sich mit der Welt außerhalb seiner selbst vereinigen könnte.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

Über Menschen, Über die Welt, Wahnsinn

Die Kunst des Liebens

„Der Mensch sieht sich - zu allen Zeiten und in allen Kulturen - vor das Problem der Lösung der einen und immer gleichen Frage gestellt: wie er sein Abgetrenntsein überwinden, wie er zur Vereinigung gelangen, wie er sein eigenes einzelnes Leben transzendieren und das Einswerden erreichen kann.“

„Vernunft ist die Fähigkeit, objektiv zu denken. Die ihr zugrunde liegende Haltung ist die Demut.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

Über Leben, Zeit, Über Menschen, Problem

„Die Entwicklung der patriarchalischen Gesellschaft geht Hand in Hand mit der Entwicklung des Privateigentums“

Die Kunst des Liebens

Denken, Liegend

„Mutterliebe ist Frieden. Sie braucht weder erworben, noch verdient zu werden.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

„Der Mensch ist abhängig; er bleibt dem Tode, dem Alter, der Krankheit unterworfen (…). Aber es ist eine Sache, die eigene Abhängigkeit und seine Grenzen anzuerkennen, und es ist etwas völlig anderes, sich dieser Abhängigkeit hinzugeben und jene Mächte anzubeten, von denen man abhängt (…). Das eine bedeutet Demut, das andere Selbstdemütigung.“

Über Frieden

„Das Denken kann uns nur zur Erkenntnis führen, dass es selsbt uns die letzte Antwort nicht geben kann.“

Über Tod, Über Krankheiten, Abhängigkeit, Über Menschen

„Selbst nach der Geburt unterscheidet sich das Kind kaum von dem, was es vor der Geburt war; es kann noch keinen Gegenstand erkennen, es ist sich seiner selbst und der Welt als etwas außerhalb von ihm Liegendes noch nicht bewusst.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

Denken

„Der Anpassungstheorie liegen folgende Annahmen zugrunde: 1. Jede Gesellschaft als soche ist normal; 2. seelisch krann ist, wer von dem von der Gesellschaft favorisierten Persönlichkeitstyp abweicht; 3. das Gesundheitswesen im Bereich von Psychiatrie udn Psychotherapie verfolgt das Ziel, den einzelnen auf das Niveau des Durchschnittschmenschen zu bringen, unabhängig davon, ob dieser blind ist oder nicht blind.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

Über Kinder, Geburt, Über die Welt, Liegend

„Auf ihrer Suche nach der Einheit hinter der Mannigfaltigkeit kamen die brahmanischen Denker zu dem Schluss, dass das von ihnen wahrgenommene Gegensatzpaar nicht das Wesen der Dinge, sondern das Wesen des wahrnehmenden Geistes widerspiegelt. Das wahrnehmende Denken muss sich selbst transzendieren, um die wahre Wirklichkeit zu erreichen. Der Widerspruch ist eine Kategorie des menschlichen Geistes und nicht an und für sich ein Element der Wirklichkeit.“

La patología de la normalidad

„Das Wesentliche an der Existenz des Menschen ist ja, dass er sich über das Tierreich und seine instiktive Anpassung erhoben hat, dass er die Natur transzendiert hat, wenn er sie auch nie ganz verlässt.“

Die Kunst des Liebens

Denken, Wirklichkeit

Über Menschen, Über natur

Die Kunst des Liebens

„Der Krieg als Institution war ebenso wie das Königstum und die Bürokratie eine neue Erfindung, etwa aus der Zeit um 3000 v. Chr. Damals wie heute lagen ihm keine psychologischen Faktoren, wie etwa die menschliche Aggression, zugrunde.“

— Erich Fromm, buch Anatomie der menschlichen Destruktivität

"Anatomie der menschlichen Destruktivität", S. 186
"War as an institution was a new invention, like kingdom or bureaucracy, made around 3000 BC. Then as now, it was not caused by psychological factors, such as human aggression, but, aside from the wishes for power and glory of the kings and their bureaucracy, was the result of objective conditions thast made war useful and which, as a consequence, tended to generate and increase human destructiveness and cruelty." - The Evidence Against the Instinctivist Thesis, in: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. p. 163
Anatomie der menschlichen Destruktivität

Über Krieg, Zeit

„Die Haltung dem "Fremden" gegenüber ist von der Haltung sich selbst gegenüber nicht zu trennen. Solange ich einen Mitmenschen als grundsätzlich verschieden von mir erfahre, solange er für mich ein Fremder ist, bleibe ich auch mir selber ein Fremder.“

„Die Normalsten sind die Kränkesten. Und die Kranken sind die Gesündesten.“

— Erich Fromm, buch Haben oder Sein

Das Zusichkommen des Menschen. Fernsehinterview mit Micaela Lämmle und Jürgen Lodemann, in: Basler Magazin, Basel, Nr. 47 (24.12.1977), S. 3. Wiederveroeffentlicht in: Erich Fromm als Vordenker: "Haben oder Sein" im Zeitalter der ökologischen Krise, Rainer Funk, Erich Fromm, Marko Ferst, Burkhard Bierhoff, Johannes Rau u.a., Edition Zeitsprung, Berlin 2002. S. 18

Erich Fromm: Zitate auf Englisch

“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.”

“Reason flows from the blending of rational thought and feeling. If the two functions are torn apart, thinking deteriorates into schizoid intellectual activity and feeling deteriorates into neurotic life-damaging passions.”

“Human beings had two basic orientations: HAVING and BEING
HAVING: seeks to acquire, posses things even people
BEING: focuses on the experience; exchanging, engaging, sharing with other people”

“It is often said that the Arabs fled, that they left the country voluntarily, and that they therefore bear the responsibility for losing their property and their land. It is true that in history there are some instances — in Rome and in France during the Revolutions when enemies of the state were proscribed and their property confiscated. But in general international law, the principle holds true that no citizen loses his property or his rights of citizenship; and the citizenship right is de facto a right to which the Arabs in Israel have much more legitimacy than the [European] Jews. Just because the Arabs fled? Since when is that punishable by confiscation of property and by being barred from returning to the land on which a people's forefathers have lived for generations? Thus, the claim of the Jews to the land of Israel cannot be a realistic political claim. If all nations would suddenly claim territories in which their forefathers had lived two thousand years ago, this world would be a madhouse. … I believe that, politically speaking, there is only one solution for Israel, namely, the unilateral acknowledgement of the obligation of the State towards the Arabs — not to use it as a bargaining point, but to acknowledge the complete moral obligation of the Israeli State to its former inhabitants of Palestine.”

“They are historical, but the product of rational imagination, rooted in an experience of what man is capable of and in a clear insight into the transitory character of previous and existing society.”

Jewish Newsletter [New York] (19 May 1959); quoted in Prophets in Babylon (1980) by Marion Woolfson, p. 13

“I believe that one can and must hope for the collective regaining of a mental health that is characterized by the capacity to love and to create…”

Human Nature and Social Theory (1969)
Kontext: What about the utopian thinkers of all ages, from the Prophets who had a vision of eternal peace, on through the Utopians of the Renaissance, etc.? Were they just dreamers? Or were they so deeply aware of new possibilities, of the changeability of social conditions, that they could visualize an entirely new form of social existence even though these new forms, as such, were not even potentially given in their own society? It is true that Marx wrote a great deal against utopian socialism, and so the term has a bad odor for many Marxists. But he is polemical against certain socialist schools which were, indeed, inferior to his system because of their lack of realism. In fact, I would say the less realistic basis for a vision of the uncrippled man and of a free society there is, the more is Utopia the only legitimate form of expressing hope. But they are not trans-historical as, for instance, is the Christian idea of the Last Judgment, etc. They are historical, but the product of rational imagination, rooted in an experience of what man is capable of and in a clear insight into the transitory character of previous and existing society.

“I would say the less realistic basis for a vision of the uncrippled man and of a free society there is, the more is Utopia the only legitimate form of expressing hope.”

Credo (1965)
Kontext: I believe that one can and must hope for a sane society that furthers man’s capacity to love his fellow men, to work and create, to develop his reason and his objectivity of a sense of himself that is based on the experience of his productive energy.
I believe that one can and must hope for the collective regaining of a mental health that is characterized by the capacity to love and to create...

“If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to all others, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism.”

“Greedhas no satiation point, since its consummation does not fill the inner emptiness, boredom, loneliness, and depression it is meant to overcome.”

— Erich Fromm, buch Die Kunst des Liebens

The Art of Loving (1956)

“The spirit of a production-centered, commodity-greedy society is such that only the non-conformist can defend himself sufficiently against it. Those who are seriously concerned with love as the only rational answer to the problem of human existence must, then, arrive at the conclusion that important and radical changes in our social structure are necessary, if love is to become a social and not a highly individualistic, marginal phenomenon.”

“It seems that the majority of men are suggestible, half-awake children, willing to surrender their will to anyone who speaks with a voice that is threatening or sweet enough to sway them. Indeed, he who has a conviction strong enough to withstand the opposition of the crowd is the exception rather than the rule, an exception often admired centuries later, mostly laughed at by his contemporaries.”

— Erich Fromm, buch Die Kunst des Liebens

The Art of Loving (1956)

“Love isn't something natural. Rather it requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith, and the overcoming of narcissism. It isn't a feeling, it is a practice.”

Quelle: The Heart of Man: Its Genius for Good and Evil.

“Immature love says: "I love you because I need you." Mature love says: "I need you because I love you."”

— Erich Fromm, buch Die Kunst des Liebens

Quelle: The Art of Loving

“Our society is run by a managerial bureaucracy, by professional politicians; people are motivated by mass suggestion, their aim is producing more and consuming more, as purposes in themselves.”

— Erich Fromm, buch Die Kunst des Liebens

Variante: Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love say: 'i need you because I love you.
Quelle: The Art of Loving (1956), Ch. 2

“Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves.”

— Erich Fromm, buch Die Kunst des Liebens

The portion of this statement, "Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence" has been widely quoted alone, resulting in a less reserved expression, and sometimes the portion following it has been as well: "Any society which excludes, relatively, the development of love, must in the long run perish of its own contradiction with the basic necessities of human nature."
The Art of Loving (1956)
Kontext: Our society is run by a managerial bureaucracy, by professional politicians; people are motivated by mass suggestion, their aim is producing more and consuming more, as purposes in themselves. All activities are subordinated to economic goals, means have become ends; man is an automaton — well fed, well clad, but without any ultimate concern for that which is his peculiarly human quality and function. If man is to be able to love, he must be put in his supreme place. The economic machine must serve him, rather than he serve it. He must be enabled to share experience, to share work, rather than, at best, share in profits. Society must be organized in such a way that man's social, loving nature is not separated from his social existence, but becomes one with it. If it is true, as I have tried to show, that love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence, then any society which excludes, relatively, the development of love, must in the long run perish of its own contradiction with the basic necessities of human nature. <!-- p. 111 - 112

“The revolutionary and critical thinker is in a certain way always outside of his society while of course he is at the same time also in it.”

As quoted in The New York Times (5 January 1964)
Kontext: Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world.

“If a society system disintegrates or is destroyed by blows from the outside the society ends in chaos, and a completely new society is built upon its ruins, often using the elements of the destroyed system to build the new. That has happened many times in history. But, what also happens is that the society is not simply destroyed but that the system is changed, and a new system emerges which can be considered to be a transformation of the old one.”

Human Nature and Social Theory (1969)
Kontext: The revolutionary and critical thinker is in a certain way always outside of his society while of course he is at the same time also in it. That he is in it is obvious, but why is he outside it? First, because he is not brainwashed by the ruling ideology, that is to say, he has an extraordinary kind of independence of thought and feeling; hence he can have a greater objectivity than the average person has. There are many emotional factors too. And certainly I do not mean to enter here into the complex problem of the revolutionary thinker. But it seems to me essential that in a certain sense he transcends his society. You may say he transcends it because of the new historical developments and possibilities he is aware of, while the majority still think in traditional terms.

“I believe that love is the main key to open the doors to the "growth" of man. Love and union with someone or something outside of oneself, union that allows one to put oneself into relationship with others, to feel one with others, without limiting the sense of integrity and independence.”

Human Nature and Social Theory (1969)
Kontext: One will be conducive to cooperation and solidarity another social structure to competition, suspiciousness, avarice; another to child-like receptiveness, another to destructive aggressiveness. All empirical forms or human needs and drives have to be understood as results of the social practice (in the last analysis based on the productive forces, class structure, etc., etc.) but they all have to fulfill the functions which are inherent in man’s nature in general, and that is to permit him to relate himself to others and share a common frame of reference, etc. The existential contradiction within man (to which I would now add also the contradiction between limitations which reality imposes on his life, and the virtually limitless imagination which his brain permits him to follow) is what I believe to be one of the motives of psychological and social dynamics. Man can never stand still. He must find solutions to this contradiction, and ever better solutions to the extent to which reality enables him.
The question then arises whether there is an optimal solution which can be inferred from man’s nature, and which constitutes a potential tendency in man. I believe that such optimal solutions can be inferred from the nature of man, and I have recently found it quite useful to think in terms of what in sociology and economy is now often called »system analysis«. One might start with the idea, in the first place, that human personality — just like society — is a system, that is to say, that each part depends on every other, and no part can be changed unless all or most other parts are also changed. A system is better than chaos. If a society system disintegrates or is destroyed by blows from the outside the society ends in chaos, and a completely new society is built upon its ruins, often using the elements of the destroyed system to build the new. That has happened many times in history. But, what also happens is that the society is not simply destroyed but that the system is changed, and a new system emerges which can be considered to be a transformation of the old one.

“In the Eastern religions and in mysticism, the love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living.”

Credo (1965)
Kontext: I believe that love is the main key to open the doors to the "growth" of man. Love and union with someone or something outside of oneself, union that allows one to put oneself into relationship with others, to feel one with others, without limiting the sense of integrity and independence. Love is a productive orientation for which it is essential that there be present at the same time: concern, responsibility, and respect for and knowledge of the object of the union.
I believe that the experience of love is the most human and humanizing act that it is given to man to enjoy and that it, like reason, makes no sense if conceived in a partial way.

“One will be conducive to cooperation and solidarity another social structure to competition, suspiciousness, avarice; another to child-like receptiveness, another to destructive aggressiveness.”

— Erich Fromm, buch Die Kunst des Liebens

Quelle: The Art of Loving (1956), Ch. 2
Kontext: In the dominant Western religious system, the love of God is essentially the same as the belief in God, in God’s existence, God’s justice, God’s love. The love of God is essentially a thought experience. In the Eastern religions and in mysticism, the love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living.

“The confusion between temperament and character has had serious consequences for ethical theory. Preferences with regard to differences in temperament are mere matters of subjective taste. But differences in character are ethically of the most fundamental importance.”

“The application of psychoanalysis to sociology must definitely guard against the mistake of wanting to give psychoanalytic answers where economic, technical, or political facts provide the real and sufficient explanation of sociological questions.”

Quelle: Man for Himself (1947), Ch. 3
Kontext: Temperament refers to the mode of reaction and is constitutional and not changeable; character is essentially formed by a person’s experiences, especially of those in early life, and changeable, to some extent, by insights and new kinds of experiences. If a person has a choleric temperament, for instance, his mode of reaction is "quick and strong.” But what he is quick or strong about depends on his kind of relatedness, his character. If he is a productive, just, loving person he will react quickly and strongly when he loves, when he is enraged by injustice, and when he is impressed by a new idea. If he is a destructive or sadistic character, he will be quick and strong in his destructiveness or in his cruelty. The confusion between temperament and character has had serious consequences for ethical theory. Preferences with regard to differences in temperament are mere matters of subjective taste. But differences in character are ethically of the most fundamental importance.

“What is it that distinguishes man from animals? It is not his upright posture.”

"Psychoanalyse und Soziologie" (1929); published as "Psychoanalysis and Sociology" as translated by Mark Ritter, in Critical Theory and Society : A Reader (1989) edited by S. E. Bronner and D. M. Kellner
Kontext: The application of psychoanalysis to sociology must definitely guard against the mistake of wanting to give psychoanalytic answers where economic, technical, or political facts provide the real and sufficient explanation of sociological questions. On the other hand, the psychoanalyst must emphasize that the subject of sociology, society, in reality consists of individuals, and that it is these human beings, rather than abstract society as such, whose actions, thoughts, and feelings are the object of sociological research.

“Care and responsibility are constituent elements of love, but without respect for and knowledge of the beloved person, love deteriorates into domination and possessiveness.”

"Affluence and Ennui in Our Society" in For the Love of Life (1986) translated by Robert and Rita Kimber
Kontext: What is it that distinguishes man from animals? It is not his upright posture. That was present in the apes long before the brain began to develop. Nor is it the use of tools. It is something altogether new, a previously unknown quality: self-awareness. Animals, too, have awareness. They are aware of objects; they know this is one thing and that another. But when the human being as such was born he had a new and different consciousness, a consciousness of himself; he knew that he existed and that he was something different, something apart from nature, apart from other people, too. He experienced himself. He was aware that he thought and felt. As far as we know, there is nothing analogous to this anywhere in the animal kingdom. That is the specific quality that makes human beings human.

“Envy, jealousy, ambition, any kind of greed are passions; love is an action, the practice of human power, which can be practiced only in freedom and never as a result of compulsion.”

Quelle: Man for Himself (1947), Ch. 3; in Ch. 2 of his later work The Art of Loving (1956) a similar statement is made :
Kontext: Care and responsibility are constituent elements of love, but without respect for and knowledge of the beloved person, love deteriorates into domination and possessiveness. 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. To respect a person is not possible without knowing him; care and responsibilty would be blind if they were not guided by the knowledge of the person's individuality.

“The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology.”

— Erich Fromm, buch Die Kunst des Liebens

The Art of Loving (1956)
Kontext: Envy, jealousy, ambition, any kind of greed are passions; love is an action, the practice of human power, which can be practiced only in freedom and never as a result of compulsion.
Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a "standing in," not a "falling for." In the most general way, the active character of love can be described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving.

“Rational faith as well as rational despair are based on the most thorough, critical knowledge of all the factors that are relevant for the survival of man.”

Quelle: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973), p. 395
Kontext: The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology. The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation the fully schizophrenic person feels. He feels at ease among those who suffer from the same deformation; in fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated in the insane society — and he may suffer so much from the incapacity to communicate that it is he who may become psychotic. In the context of this study the crucial question is whether the hypothesis of a quasi-autistic or of low-grade schizophrenic disturbance would help us to explain some of the violence spreading today.

“To love one person productively means to be related to his human core, to him as representing mankind. Love for one individual, in so far as it is divorced from love for man, can refer only to the superficial and to the accidental; of necessity it remains shallow.”

Quelle: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973), p. 483
Kontext: Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair. If one truly responds to man and his future, ie, concernedly and "responsibly." one can respond only by faith or by despair. Rational faith as well as rational despair are based on the most thorough, critical knowledge of all the factors that are relevant for the survival of man.

“What about the utopian thinkers of all ages, from the Prophets who had a vision of eternal peace, on through the Utopians of the Renaissance, etc.? Were they just dreamers? Or were they so deeply aware of new possibilities, of the changeability of social conditions, that they could visualize an entirely new form of social existence even though these new forms, as such, were not even potentially given in their own society?”

— Erich Fromm, buch Die Kunst des Liebens

Quelle: The Art of Loving (1956), Ch. 2
Kontext: In spite of the universalistic spirit of the monotheistic Western religions and of the progressive political concepts that are expressed in the idea "that all men are created equal," love for mankind has not become a common experience. Love for mankind is looked upon as an achievement which, at best, follows love for an individual or as an abstract concept to be realized only in the future. But love for man cannot be separated from love for one individual. To love one person productively means to be related to his human core, to him as representing mankind. Love for one individual, in so far as it is divorced from love for man, can refer only to the superficial and to the accidental; of necessity it remains shallow.

“To have faith in the possibility of love as a social and not only exceptional-individual phenomenon, is a rational faith based on the insight into the very nature of man.”