Human history began as an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience. At this point in history the capacity to doubt, to criticize and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization.
Erich FrommHappiness today, I think, is for most people the satisfaction of the eternal suckling: to drink in more this, that, or the other.
Erich FrommSociety must be organized in such a way that mans social, loving nature is not separated from his social existence, but becomes one with it.
Erich FrommBasically, there can only be two answers. One is to overcome separateness and find unity by regression to the state of unity which existed before awareness ever arose, that is, before man was born. The other answer is to be fully born, to develop one's awareness, one's reason, one's capacity to love to such a point that one transcends one's own egocentric involvement, and arrives at a new harmony, at a new oneness with the world.
Erich Fromm