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.Erich Fromm
Freedom is not a constant attribute which we either 'have' or 'have not'. In reality, freedom is something that we essentially have to gain.Erich Fromm
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.Erich Fromm
If I am what I have and if I lose what I have, who then am I?Erich Fromm
Most people die before they are fully born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies.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
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.Erich Fromm
The history of man is a graveyard of great cultures that came to catastrophic ends because of their incapacity for planned, rational, voluntary reaction to challenge.Erich Fromm
If I perceive in another person mainly the surface, I perceive mainly the differences, that which separates us. If I penetrate to the core, I perceive our identity, the fact of our brotherhood.Erich Fromm
Modern man still is anxious and tempted to surrender his freedom to dictators of all kinds, or to lose it by transforming himself into a small cog in the machine, well fed, and well clothed, yet not a free man but an automaton.Erich Fromm