Erich Fromm Quotes

I'm fascinated by what makes up a self, how one becomes a self, how much is it an answer to others and how much is it an essence of self.

Maybe I’d like to be defined by what I am.

For myself, I do not now know in any concrete human terms wherein my individuality consists. In my present human form of consciousness I simply cannot tell.

I don't know if there is a personal identity. We all imagine that we are absolute individuals. But when we begin to look for where this individuality resides, it's very difficult to find.

It's so much easier to know who you are when there aren't a thousand people telling you who they think you are.

You're an island no matter what you do. I think it's very dangerous to use popularity as your identity in life. So you have to really know who you are inside, the core person, and follow what is true rather than follow what is hype.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that's always existed.

I don't know what else I would be if I wasn't me. I am not looking from the outside, looking back. I am who I am.

I just like showing people - and this might be at the root of everything that I've done - that I don't want to be looked at as a baseball robot.

Nobody else can tell you what you are.

I think, personally, it's our flaws that define us to us - or maybe it's just me.

I don't want to lose myself for someone else.

It's important that a person doesn't lose track of himself.

Selfness is an essential fact of life. The thought of nonselfness, precise sameness is terrifying.

I am not an image. I am a human being.

People are always talking about freedom. Freedom to live a certain way, without being kicked around. Course the more you live a certain way, the less it feel like freedom. Me, uhm, I can change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person, when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else. I don't know who I am most of the time.

What is I? It's what you are, not what others make of you.

We hear a lot about identity theft when someone takes your wallet and pretends to be you and uses your credit cards. But the more serious identity theft is to get swallowed up in other people's definition of you.

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.

I am not my body. My body is nothing without me.

You're yourself," Tana said, grinning. "More purely yourself than anyone I know. And if you can't see who that is anymore, then see yourself the way I see you.

One must be truly able to say I in order to know the mystery of the Thou in its whole truth.

The secret is to have a sense of yourself, your real self, your unique self. And not just once in a while, or once a day, but all through the day, the week and life.

It isn't difficult to leave King Lear or Macbeth, but once you have gone back to yourself, you want it to be the same self you have always been.

It's vital to remember who you really are. It's very important. It isn't a good idea to rely on other people or things to do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong.