Erich Fromm Quotes about Reality

All Erich Fromm Quotes Achievement Art Attitude Authority Awareness Belief Birth Boredom Challenges Character Children Choices Concentration Confusion Country Creation Creativity Culture Death Desire Doubt Education Effort Ego Enthusiasm Envy Faith Falling In Love Family Feelings Freedom Giving Greed Growth Happiness Hate Heaven History Home Human Nature Humanity Identity Independence Inspirational Integrity Joy Judging Judgment Justice Language Learning Liberty Life Life And Death Loneliness Love Love Life Lying Manipulation Meaning Of Life Mom Narcissism Overcoming Passion Past Personality Power Psychology Purpose Quality Reality quotes Religion Responsibility Sadness Sanity Sleep Socialism Society Soul Survival Teaching Today Unity Values Virtue Vision War

An illusion shared by everyone becomes a reality.

An illusion shared by everyone becomes a reality.

Erich Fromm

Reality, Illusion

Erich Fromm (2014). “The Dogma of Christ: and Other Essays on Religion, Psychology and Culture”, p.14, Open Road Media

There is only one reality: the act of feeling ourselves in the process of making choices.

Erich Fromm

Inspirational, Reality, Choices

Knowing means to penetrate through the surface, in order to arrive at the roots, and hence the causes; knowing means to "see" reality in its nakedness. Knowing does not mean to be in the possession of the truth; it means to penetrate the surface and to strive critically and actively in order to approach truth ever more closely.

Erich Fromm

Mean, Reality, Order

Erich Fromm (2017). “Fascism, Power, and Individual Rights: Escape from Freedom, To Have or To Be?, and The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”, p.328, Open Road Media

I believe that the fundamental alternative for man is the choice between "life" and "death"; between creativity and destructive violence; between reality and illusions; between objectivity and intolerance; between brotherhood-independence and dominance-submission.

Erich Fromm

Believe, Creativity, Reality

Erich Fromm (1994). “On Being Human”, Continuum

I think what democracy means today, in reality, is to a large extent, manipulated consent - not forced consent, manipulated consent - and manipulated more and more with the help of Madison Avenue.

Erich Fromm

Mean, Thinking, Reality

Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu

Freedom is not a constant attribute which we either "have" or "have not." In fact, there is no such thing as "freedom" except as a word and an abstract concept. There is only one reality: the act of freeing ourselves in the process of making choices. In this process the degree of our capacity to make choices varies with each act, with our practice of life.

Erich Fromm

Reality, Practice, Choices

Erich Fromm (2011). “The Heart of Man”, p.132, Lantern Books

Psychoanalysis is essentially a theory of unconscious strivings, of resistance, of falsification of reality according to one's subjective needs and expectations.

Erich Fromm

Reality, Expectations, Needs

Erich Fromm (2013). “The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”, p.150, Open Road Media

Man can never stand still. He must find solutions to this contradiction, and ever better solutions to the extent to which reality enables him.

Erich Fromm

Reality, Men, Contradiction

"Human Nature and Social Theory". Letter by Erich Fromm to Vladimir Dobrenkov, March 10, 1969.

We have faith in the potentialities of others, of ourselves, and of mankind because, and only to the degree to which, we have experienced the growth of our own potentialities, the reality of growth in ourselves, the strength of our own power of reason and love.

Erich Fromm

Love, Reality, Growth

Erich Fromm (2000). “The Art of Loving: The Centennial Edition”, p.113, A&C Black

All great art is by its very essence in conflict with the society with which it exists. It expresses the truth about the existence regardless of whether this truth serves or hinders the survival purpose of a given society. All great art is revolutionary because it touches upon the reality of man and questions the reality of the various transitory forms of human society.

Erich Fromm

Art, Reality, Men

If one admits that the influence of the outside world is essentially beneficial, the lack of such influence during sleep would tend to diminish the value of our dream activity so as to render it inferior to the mental activity that takes place when we are awake, when we are exposed to these beneficial influences of surrounding reality. But how can one say that the influence of reality is exclusively beneficial. Could it not also be damaging, and could its absence not give access to qualities superior to those that we have when awake?

Erich Fromm

Dream, Sleep, Reality

Source: www.scribd.com

The activity at this very moment must be the only thing that matters, to which one is fully given. If one is concentrated, it matters little what one is doing. The important, as well as the unimportant things, assume a new dimension of reality, because they have one's full attention.

Erich Fromm

Reality, Unimportant Things, Littles

Erich Fromm (2013). “The Art of Loving”, p.114, Open Road Media