Erich Fromm Quotes

Those who love to be feared fear to be loved, and they themselves are more afraid than anyone, for whereas other men fear only them, they fear everyone.

The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.

It is a curiosity of human nature that lack of self-assurance seems to breed an exaggerated sense of power and mission.

I've been pretending to be a man that I'm not my entire life. I've been pretending to be strong when I felt weak, confident when I felt insecure and tough when really I was hurting. And I can tell you right now that it is exhausting.

It is a mistake, that a lust for power is the mark of a great mind; for even the weakest have been captivated by it; and for minds of the highest order, it has no charms.

The love of power is the demon of mankind.

A strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength.

A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.

You have power, rank, command, influence; we have wealth, the source both of our strength and weakness.

Although men are accused of not knowing their weakness, yet perhaps as few know their strength.

Weakness cannot cooperate with anything. Only strength can cooperate.

The central factor in most human beings is power. Politics is the manifestation of the quest for power.

I challenge you [other men] to see if you can use the same qualities that you feel make you a man to go deeper into yourself. Your strength, your bravery, your toughness: Can we redefine what those mean and use them to explore our hearts? Are you brave enough to be vulnerable? To reach out to another man when you need help? To dive headfirst into your shame? Are you strong enough to be sensitive, to cry whether you are hurting or you're happy, even if it makes you look weak? Are you confident enough to listen to the women in your life? To hear their ideas and their solutions? To hold their anguish and actually believe them, even if what they're saying is against you? And will you be man enough to stand up to other men when you hear "locker room talk," when you hear stories of sexual harassment? When you hear your boys talking about grabbing ass or getting her drunk, will you actually stand up and do something so that one day we don't have to live in a world where a woman has to risk everything and come forward to say the words "me too?"

We're all insecure, aren't we? I'm not walking around like I'm macho man or anything.

Men are strong so long as they represent a strong idea they become powerless when they oppose it.

For Mr. Putin, vacillation invites aggression. His world is a brutish, cynical place, where power is worshiped, weakness is despised, and all rivalries are zero-sum.

I think Trump is someone who appreciates and connects with people who hold their own and are strong individuals. I think he can smell weakness, and if you show him weakness, he exploits it, and he doesn't respect you.

Somebody accumulates a lot of muscle and think himself to be a big man. But this big man is only big when all around him are smaller.

Criticising is a weapon of the weak.

We put up these facades, of maybe strength of who we are, but inside there's this incredibly broken person.

Brittle masculinity, in the right setting, becomes political atrocity. Strength brings problems; weakness brings others, but weakness posing as strength is the most dangerous of all.

Fear is trusting in your own power.

The weak can be terrible because they try furiously to appear strong.

The strong are good, only the weak are wicked.

This world… belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.