Human history began with an act of disobedience and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience.
Interpretation
Human history is characterized by rebellion against authority, and its end may come through submission or adherence to a higher moral law.
Erich Fromm's quote suggests that the essence of human history has been shaped by acts of disobedience, indicating a struggle against oppression and a quest for freedom. However, it also warns that the future of humanity could hinge on obedience, possibly implying that a return to moral values or societal norms might be necessary to ensure survival, thus highlighting the paradox of freedom and order in the human experience.
In practice
This quote could inspire a discussion on the role of civil disobedience in social movements.
Love, experienced thus, is a constant challenge; it is not a resting place, but a moving, growing, working together; even whether there is harmony or conflict; joy or sadness, is secondary to the fundamental fact that two people experience themselves from the essence of their existence, that they are only one with each other by being one with themselves, rather than by fleeing from themselves.
Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world.
Infantile love follows the principle: "I love because I am loved." Mature love follows the principle: "I am loved because I love." Immature love says: "I love you because I need you." Mature love says: "I need you because I love you.
To have faith requires courage, the ability to take a risk, the readiness even to accept pain and disappointment. Whoever insists on safety and security as primary conditions of life cannot have faith; whoever shuts himself off in a system of defense, where distance and possession are his means of security, makes himself a prisoner. To be loved, and to love, need courage, the courage to judge certain values as of ultimate concern β and to take the jump and to stake everything on these values.
In times of change, learners inherit the earth
In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.
When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
If you want to know what a given society believes in, look at what its largest buildings are devoted to.
You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.
When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing.
Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?
By whomsoever no evil is done in deed, or word, or thought, him I call a Brahmin (holy man) who is guarded in these three.
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