Erich Fromm Quotes

They don't have intelligence. They have what I call 'thintelligence.' They see the immediate situation. They think narrowly and they call it 'being focused.' They don't see the surround. They don't see the consequences.

Our daily lives are so mundane, we get taken over by what is immediately in front of us and we don't see beyond that.

Silicon Valley tends to be very myopic - to be focused on one or two things - which has some strengths as well as weaknesses.

When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.

Education, I fear, is learning to see one thing by going blind to another.

The eye goes blind when it only wants to see why.

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Being a writer-director can sometimes make you incredibly blinkered.

We have a very narrow view of what is going on.

It may be true, that men, who are mere mathematicians, have certain specific shortcomings, but that is not the fault of mathematics, for it is equally true of every other exclusive occupation.

I am a bit of a head-in-the-sand person as concerns things happening beyond the walls of my study. And I don't feel particularly guilty about that. I figure that my primary job is producing the very best stories I am capable of writing, and that is what I concentrate upon doing. That is within my control.

Sometimes one can be so closely involved with things that the larger context is lost to view.

Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers.

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

When you sit on something for so long you can't see beyond it. It's all you can see, so you become locked in it.

For some reason most critics have a hard time fixing their minds directly under their noses, and before they see the object that is there they use a telescope upon the horizon to see where it came from.

There's nothing you can't prove if your outlook is only sufficiently limited.

The trouble with you, Eisenhower, is that you're too small minded.

He who sees only what is before his eyes sees the worst part of every view.

I think that a lot of people in all walks of life have the impression, of course, that, 'I specialize in something. I can't - I don't have the time to read other things. I'll just go to pure entertainment when I'm relaxing, and then I'll come back to my pure specialty.' That produces - that attitude produces idiot savants, unfortunately.

Bret and I were friends, but we were young, and we made bad decisions. We couldn't see outside the wrestling business. It was the end-all, be-all. You were in that box constantly, so that's all you thought about. It affects your decision-making.

The man who consumes sports to the exclusion of all other things will never be well-rounded.

People don't see much further than their noses.

Perspective starts from one viewpoint and never gets away from it. But the viewpoint is quite unimportant. It is though someone were to draw profiles all his life, leading people to think that a man has only one eye.

America has enjoyed the doubtful blessing of a single-track mind.