Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
Use itGS4: explain greed as root of corruption and insatiable desire; essay on need versus greed.
Quotes / Thinkers / Erich Fromm
Thinker · 11 quotes
Erich Fromm quotes for UPSC
11 sourced quotes by Erich Fromm on compassion & empathy, mind & self-awareness, ethics & morality, integrity & honesty, character & virtue, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
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Fairness means not to use fraud and trickery in the exchange of commodities and services and the exchange of feelings.
— Erich FrommThe Art of Loving (1956)
Use itGS4 definition answer on fairness; extend to business ethics and honest dealings.
Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.
Use itGS4: self-confidence as a foundation of loyalty and trustworthiness in relationships.
One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.
Use itGS4 empathy answer: sensitivity to others' suffering carries an emotional cost worth bearing.
All men are in need of help and depend on one another. Human solidarity is the necessary condition for the unfolding of any one individual.
Use itEssay on solidarity and welfare state; argue individual flourishing depends on collective support.
Human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience.
— Erich Fromm"Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem" in On Disobedience and Other Essays (1981)
Use itEssay on dissent in democracy; GS4 on blind obedience versus conscience in organisations.
The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
Use itGS1/Essay: history is written by victors; outcome often decides legitimacy of revolutionaries.
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 FrommThe Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (1968)
Use itEssay on hope and long struggles; Life: keep working for change without despairing at slow results.
If I am what I have and if what I have is lost, who then am I?
— Erich Fromm"To Have or to Be?" Ch. 6 (1976)
Use itEssay on consumerism and identity; question defining self-worth by possessions.
The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.
Use itEssay on uncertainty as a spur to growth; Life: embrace ambiguity instead of fearing it.
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 FrommCh. 4 "Problems of Humanistic Ethics"
Use itEssay on self-realisation; Life: personal growth as the main work of a lifetime.