Erich Fromm

That man can destroy life is just as miraculous a feat as that he can create it, for life is the miracle, the inexplicable. In the act of destruction, man sets himself above life; he transcends himself as a creature. Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.

Sleep is often the only occasion in which man cannot silence his conscience; we forget what we knew in our dream.

Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is.

Immature love says, "I love you because I need you." Mature love says, "I need you because I love you."

Man's main task is to give birth to himself.

Love is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one's own self.

There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by unfolding of his powers.

The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.

Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.

The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man.

There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives to his life by the unfolding of his powers.

Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.

As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found--in himself.