Erich Fromm Quotes

Only on the surface of things have I ever trod the beaten path. So long as I could keep from hurting anyone else, I have lived, as completely as it was possible, the life of my choice. I have been free. . . . I have done the work I wished to do for the sake of that work alone.

I think people should do whatever they want to do. That's the point. Why should you care what other people think or say? You're not living in their pocket.

I want it to resonate: there's no rule for how to live your life. You can do things your own way.

Each man, if he attempts to join himself to others, is on all sides cramped and diminished of his proportion; and the stricter theunion, the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him alone, to recognize in every hour and place the secret soul, he will go up and down doing the works of a true member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will be done with concert, though no man spoke.

I'd rather die my way than live yours.

Don't live your life to please other people.

This is my life; these are my fingerprints; I'm unique; this is what I want to do. You worry about your own front porch and what's happening in your own world.

I'm not representing other people. I'm representing me.

I like independence, I like creating my own world, not being in a system. There are more possibilities, I think.

I refuse to act the way someone expects me to.

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.

I have the freedom to take chances, to say no. I have the freedom to be who I really want to be, rather than have to conform to this or that just to stay alive.

You don't have to burn books, you don't have to rebel against teachers to rebel; to rebel is to truly own your own self.

The free way of life proposes ends, but it does not prescribe means.

I didn't want people to decide what I was going to wear and what I was going to look like and how I should behave.

I am definitely an individual.

I appreciate individualism.

I'm totally committed to the cause of individuality. That's the only thing I stand by: independence.

All I'm for is the liberty of the individual.

What makes America unique in the world is the idea of the self-directed life.

Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done

… not to destroy individualism but to protect it

I'm going to do whatever I want as long as it's country. I mean, I'm not much on naysayers, so I'll just do whatever. If I like it, I'll do it.

I'm my own person. You can't generalise about people.

Nobody owes anything to anybody. You are your authentic self to whom and when you choose to be, and if you don't know somebody, then why would you explain to them how you live your life?