We offer you 30 quotes from the outstanding German philosopher and psychologist Erich Fromm. Quotes that give life , quotes that answer the most disturbing questions of man. His thoughts will not leave anyone indifferent.
1. The main life task of a person is to give life to himself , to become what he is potentially. The most important fruit of his efforts is his own personality.
2. We must not give explanations or accountability to anyone as long as our actions do not hurt or encroach on others. How many lives have been ruined by this need to "explain", which usually means that you are "understood", that is, justified. Let them judge by your actions , and by them - about your true intentions , but know that a free person should explain something only to himself - to his mind and consciousness - and to those few who have the right to demand an explanation.
3. If I love , I care , that is, I actively participate in the development and happiness of the other person , I am not a spectator.
4. The goal of a person is to be himself , and the condition for achieving this goal is to be a person for himself. Not self-denial , not self-love , but self-love; not a rejection of the individual, but the assertion of one's own human self: these are the true highest values of humanistic ethics.
5. There is no other meaning in life , except what kind of person gives it , revealing his strength , living fruitfully.
6. If a person can live not under compulsion , not automatically , but spontaneously , then he realizes himself as an active creative person and understands that life has only one meaning - life itself.
7. We are what we ourselves have inspired about ourselves and what others have inspired us about us.
8. Happiness is not some kind of God's gift , but an achievement that a person achieves with his inner fruitfulness.
9. Everything is important for a person , except for his own life and the art of living. He exists for anything but himself.
10. A sensitive person is unable to resist deep sadness over the inevitable tragedies of life. And joy , and sadness are the inevitable experiences of the sensitive, full of human life.
11. The unfortunate fate of many people is a consequence of the choice they did not make. They are neither alive nor dead. Life turns out to be a burden , an invaluable occupation , and deeds are only a means of protection from the torments of being in the kingdom of shadows.
12. The concept of "being alive" is not a static concept , but a dynamic one. Existence is the same as the disclosure of the specific forces of the organism. The actualization of potential forces is an innate property of all organisms. Therefore, the disclosure of human potentials in accordance with the laws of his nature should be considered as the goal of human life.
13. Sympathy and experience assumes that I experience in myself what is experienced by another person , and therefore , , he and I are one. All knowledge about another person is valid insofar as it is based on my experience of what he is experiencing.
14. I am sure that no one can "save" his neighbor by making a choice for him. All that one person can help another is to reveal to him truthfully and with love , but without sentimentality and illusions , the existence of an alternative.
15. Life poses a paradoxical task for a person: on the one hand, to realize one's individuality , and on the other hand, to surpass it and come to experience universality. Only a comprehensive development of a person can rise above his Self.