“To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.”

— Erich Fromm, Man for Himself, 1947, Ch. 4

About Erich Fromm

1900 – 1980

German-born psychoanalyst and social philosopher, author of 'The Art of Loving' (1956) and 'Escape from Freedom' (1941).

“In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two.”

“Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it.”

“What is it that distinguishes man from animals? It is not his upright posture.”

“Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”

“If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.”

“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.”

“A witticism is an epigram on the death of a feeling.”

“Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end.”

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!”