Erich Fromm — Quote from The Art of Loving
“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.”
The Art of Loving (1956)
Concepts: love, meaning, loneliness
Resonant Quotes
- “The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against opp...” — bell hooks, Outlaw Culture hooks and Fromm arrive at the same conclusion from different directions — love is not sentiment but a radical act tha...
- “The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is ...” — George Orwell, Reflections on Gandhi Fromm's proclamation that love solves human existence finds its tragic completion in Orwell's acknowledgment that cho...
- “A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever ...” — Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan Both authors converge on love as the fundamental purpose and solution to human existence, with Vonnegut extending Fro...
- “Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot l...” — James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time Baldwin's love that strips away masks and Fromm's love as the answer to existence both understand love as radical tru...
- “Let my love, like sunlight, surround you and yet give you illumined freedom.” — Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds Tagore's love that gives illumined freedom and Fromm's love as the answer to existence both understand love not as po...
- “The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, fo...” — Audre Lorde, Uses of the Erotic Both authors identify human connection as fundamental to existence, with Fromm positioning love as the solution to ex...
- “To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive — to ...” — Rollo May, Love and Will May's insight that love requires openness to suffering directly challenges Fromm's characterization of love as a 'sat...
- “Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of comm...” — bell hooks, All About Love Both thinkers position love and connection as essential to human wellbeing, with hooks extending Fromm's insight by e...