Erich Fromm is, without a doubt, one of the most notable figures in Psychology, and was a psychoanalyst and social psychologist. His thought is far from the conception of classical psychoanalysis, whose maximum exponent was Sigmund Freud.

The latter had a pessimistic view of human beings, in which behaviour and thoughts are governed by unconscious forces that we cannot control and which make us slaves of our past.

  • Related text: “Sigmund Freud: life and work of the famous psychoanalyst”

Best of Erich Fromm’s quotes

Fromm, therefore, is framed within the humanist psychoanalysis , in which the human being has the capacity to become free and decide his own vital trajectory. Furthermore, Fromm was influenced by Karl Marx, and he especially studied the influence of society and culture on the individual. In today’s article, we review the best phrases of this important psychologist.

  • Related text: “Erich Fromm: biography of the father of humanistic psychoanalysis”

1, Greed is a bottomless pit that exhausts the person in an eternal effort to satisfy the need without even reaching satisfaction

Greed is one of the evils of human beings . It is a vicious circle in which one always wants more and more.

2. Fair means not resorting to fraud and deception in exchange for comfort and services or in exchange for feelings

Justice is closely related to honesty , integrity and unselfishness.

3. He who has much is not rich, but he who gives much

Giving can make you happier than receiving, because when you feel good about yourself, there is no money that can pay for that.

4. Human beings always die before they are completely born

A phrase by Erich Fromm that will make you think and think.

5. The meaning of life consists only in the very act of living

Living in the moment and being in the present is what makes us live.

6. Dying is tinged with a touching bitterness, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable

If you don’t take advantage of your life and do what you really want, it will be your death in the long run.

7. In the same way that mass production requires the standardization of goods, the social process requires the standardization of the human being, and this standardization is called equality

A thought by Erich Fromm about society and the concept of equality.

8. Selfish people are incapable of loving others, nor are they capable of loving themselves

Selfishness is another of the sins of human beings and brings with it negative consequences for the person. To find out what selfish individuals are like, click here.

9. Love is not something natural, but requires discipline, concentration, patience, faith and the defeat of narcissism. It is not a feeling, it is a practice

A reflection by Erich Fromm on love, and expresses what are the requirements to achieve it.

10. Nationalism is our form of incest, it is our idolatry, it is our madness. Patriotism is its sect

Fromm expressing his idea of nationalism , and how it is related to madness. It is a prejudice.

11. Paradoxically, being able to be alone is the condition for being able to love

Love is one of the most beautiful sensations that we human beings can feel.

  • If you want to know more phrases about love, you can read our post: “100 phrases about love and romance (unforgettable)”

12. It is paradoxical in love that two beings become one and at the same time remain two

When two people decide to be together, their world becomes one: that of love.

13. Only the person who has faith in himself is capable of having faith in others

Self-confidence is key to being able to relate positively to others.

14. Both dreams and myths represent important communications from ourselves to ourselves

A sentence by Erich Fromm about dreams and how they affect us.

15. One cannot be completely sensitive to the world without often being saddened

One can be sensitive and reflect on what surrounds us without the need to be always sad.

16. There may be no phenomenon that contains a destructive feeling greater than moral outrage, which leads to envy or hatred acting in the guise of virtue

Moral outrage can bring about envy and seemingly justified hatred.

17. If I perceive in another person mainly the surface, I perceive mainly the differences, that which separates us. If I get inside of him, I perceive his identity, our relationship of brotherhood

This thought of Erich Fromm talks about superficiality and how we can connect with someone if we connect with their inner self.

18. There is hardly any activity or project that starts with such high hopes and expectations, and yet fails so often, as love

Love can go well or badly, but when we fall in love, everything is rosy. Sometimes, unrealistically.

19. In romantic love, two people who were separated become one. In maternal love, two people who were one become one

Erich Fromm, with this phrase, compares romantic love to maternal love.

20. To long means to be prepared in every moment for what is not yet born and at the same time not to despair if there is no birth in our life

A profound reflection by the father of humanist psychoanalysis on longing.

21. The search for narcissistic satisfaction derives from the need to compensate for material and cultural poverty

Narcissism is the result of the interaction between genetic and cultural variables. If you want to know how to detect narcissistic individuals, click here.

22. There is no word in language that has been prostituted more than the word love

Love is a word that has been used by poets or authors of great novels, because it is a subject that interests us all.

23. The fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental illness does not mean that these people are sane

Fromm gives us a fine irony about collective schizophrenia.

24. Society should be organized in such a way that the social and loving nature of human beings is not separated from their social existence, but rather brought together

Love is a human feeling and has a great cultural and social component.

25. There cannot be freedom without freedom to fail

Perfection does not exist, nor does it exist in freedom.

24. Life has no meaning except the very meaning each one gives to his own life by revealing all his powers

We perceive reality based on our mind maps and our learning from the past. Reality is our reality.

25. The human being has two basic orientations: to have and to be. To have implies acquiring and possessing things, including people. Being focuses on experience: exchanging, committing, sharing with other people

For Fromm, people have two basic characteristics: to have and to be

26. Human history began with an act of disobedience and will most likely end with an act of obedience

A reflection by Fromm on the beginnings of humanity.

  • Related article: “The Milgram Experiment: The Danger of Obedience to Authority”

27. The fundamental alternative for human beings is the choice between life and death, between creativity and destructive violence, between reality and illusion, between objectivity and intolerance, between brotherhood and independence and domination and submission

One of the great reflections on human beings and their choices.

28. Immature love says, “I love you because I need you. Mature love says, “I need you because I love you”

Mature love is the one that lasts, because even though the flame of irrational love can be very intense, it dissolves in its own fire.

29 . The mature answer to the problem of existence is love

Mature love is a love that is nourished by understanding and respect from both partners

30. If I am what I have and if I lose what I have, then who am I?

The problem with valuing oneself or being valued by the material is that, when one ceases to be a subject, one becomes an object.

31. The main task of the human being in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he really is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality

A typical humanist reflection on one’s own personal development.

32. In the 19th century the problem was that God had died. In the twentieth century the problem was that man had died

A phrase that refers to the modern human being, the one who lives immensely in the capitalist world.

33. We are a society of deeply unhappy people: lonely, worried, depressed

Again Fromm referring to the capitalist society that promotes selfish and unsupportive values.

34. We live in a world of things and our only relationship with them is that we know how to manipulate or consume them

Again, Fromm refers to the capitalist and materialist society.

35. Love is normally a favourable exchange between two people who get as much as they can expect, taking into account their market value of personalities

Fromm was always a philosopher of love, as this sentence shows.

36. The revolutionary and critical thinker is always somehow outside of society and, at the same time, part of it

When someone is not comfortable with society, he is a revolutionary. His mind is outside of society, but his body is inside.

37. Who could say whether a happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking during a sunny morning and smelling the fresh air is not worth all the effort and suffering intrinsic to life

At the end of the day, for many, happiness is a great motivation.

38. Accepting the difficulties, setbacks and tragedies of life as a challenge that, when overcome, makes us stronger

Overcoming life’s adversities makes you more prepared for tomorrow.

39. Why does society feel responsible only for the education of children and not for the education of adults of any age?

A thoughtful phrase about the education of children and adults.

40. The human being is the product of the natural evolution born from the conflict of being a prisoner and being separated from nature and the need to find unity and harmony in it

The human being is constantly looking for balance.

41. The conditions for being creative are to be disconcerted, to concentrate, to accept conflict and tension, to be born every day, to feel the reason for oneself.

Fromm expresses what the conditions are to be creative.

42. Creativity means being born before you die

Another reflection on creativity. Do you know the keys to creativity? If you are interested in this topic, click here.

43. Sanity is simply what is found in the frame of reference of conventional thinking

Thinking like the rest of society is synonymous with being sane.

45. If one is not productive in other ways, one is not productive in love either

Finding yourself well has a positive effect on love.

46. If a person loves only one person and is indifferent to all the others, then his love is not love, but symbolic attachment or extended egocentricity.

Love can be a very selfish experience.

47. Not enough attention is paid to the word boredom. We speak of many horrible things that happen to people, but we do not usually speak of one of the worst: feeling boredom, either in solitude or, worse still, in company.

Boredom is considered one of the worst things, according to Fromm

48. The biological weakness of the being is the condition of human culture.

Fromm, making clear his perspective on human culture.

49. Only those who do not want more than they have are prosperous

The key to happiness is settling for what you want.

50. The task we must impose on ourselves is not to feel safe, but to be able to tolerate insecurity

We people have an enormous fear of insecurity and uncertainty.

51. There is nothing inhumane, evil or irrational that will not produce some kind of comfort if done in a group

Group pressure and inter-group relationships often determine our behavior within the group.

52. Is love an art? Then it requires knowledge and effort

“The Art of Love” of love is one of Fromm’s great works of art and a highly recommended book.

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

Without a doubt, love makes us experience extraordinary sensations.

54. Authority is not a quality that a person has, in the sense of having physical properties or qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relationship in which one person looks at another with superiority

Authority and obedience go hand in hand, and are a relationship of power.

55. Love is an energy that produces love

There’s nothing that stirs up emotions as strong as those of love.

56. The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the part of the mother, but precisely this love must help the child to distance itself from the mother and to achieve total independence

The mother-child relationship is a unique relationship , in which the child needs the mother to develop but, at the same time, the child needs to explore on its own.

57. The danger of the past was that humans would become slaves. The danger of the future is that these humans could become robots

The modern human being lives on automatic pilot.

58. Freedom does not mean license

A sentence about freedom in the tone of a humanist philosopher.59. Love is the union with someone or something outside oneself, on the condition of preserving one’s individualism and integrity

Although in love we give ourselves to others, we can never lose our own identity.

60. We are what we do

Our behavior is a reflection of our mind.

62. We all dream; we do not understand our dreams, and yet we act as if nothing strange were happening in our sleeping minds, strange at least in regard to what our minds do logically and decidedly when we are awake.

The relationship between reason and dreams is reflected in this sentence.

63. A mother’s love is peace. It does not need to be acquired, it does not need to be deserved.

A mother’s love is surely the purest love there is.

64. The human being is the only animal whose existence is a problem he has to solve

The human being is continuously looking for answers to his own existence.

65. The search for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the only condition that prompts human beings to reveal their powers

Truths are relative, and the search for truth makes us move.

66. What most people in our culture understand by loved one is basically a mixture of popularity and sexual attraction

A reality of our culture is that sexual attractiveness and popularity are two features highly valued by our society.

67. Childish love follows the principle: I love because I am loved. Mature love obeys the principle: They love me because I love. Immature love says: I love you because I need you. Mature love says: I need you because I love you.

There are different types of love, as can be seen in this reflection.

68. What does one person give to another? He gives of himself of the most precious thing he has, of his own life. This does not necessarily mean that he sacrifices his life for another, but that he gives what is alive in him, he gives of his joy, of his interest, of his understanding, of his knowledge, of his humour, of his sadness, of all the expressions and manifestations of what is alive in him.

Love, without a doubt, makes us feel alive and motivates us to keep going.

69. You are born alone and die alone, and in the parenthesis the loneliness is so great that you need to share your life to forget it

While we live, love is one of our primary goals.

70. In a culture in which a commercial orientation prevails and in which material success is the predominant value, there is really no reason to be surprised that human love relationships follow the same pattern that governs the market for goods and labour.

Capitalist society has influenced all spheres of our lives, especially love. Interpersonal relationships have been commodified.

71.Hope is paradoxical. To have hope means to be ready at any moment for what is not yet born, but without becoming desperate if the birth does not occur in the span of our life.

A thoughtful phrase from Erich Fromm.

72.Human nature, even though it is the product of historical evolution, possesses certain mechanisms and inherent laws, the discovery of which constitutes the task of psychology.

A reflection on the psychological mechanisms that underlie human behavior.

73. Closely related to the development of the capacity to love is the evolution of the loving object. In the first months and years of life, the child’s closest relationship is with its mother.

This thought of Fromm refers directly to the Oedipus complex, a concept developed by Sigmund Freud.

74.Sex without love only alleviates the abyss that exists between two human beings in a momentary manner.

According to Fromm, having intimate relationships with no other pretension than enjoyment can be a double-edged sword.

75.Chess: An activity where problems must be solved: with reason, with imagination and with conscience. A need to realize, that what is done has an impact, awakens interest and is the object of a response from others. The principle of effectiveness is made present by love and productive work.

An allegory between chess, consciousness and productivity.