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 good thing are accomplished, it does not claim (or name) them. This is Te, which is close in meaning to power or virtue. It is something within a person, and it is enhanced by following the Tao, or 'that from which nothing can deviate'.
The idea of sustainability can imply there is one perfect, unchanging future, if only we could work out how to get there. Resilience might be more useful, in that it assumes a dynamic environment and that perfection is impossible. You need to design systems to accommodate failure rather than eliminate it. By trying to be perfect, many visions of sustainability are quite brittle
Fascism accepts the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with the state's.
Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation.
He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
The law of nature is alternation for evermore. Each electrical state superinduces the opposite. The soul environs itself with friends, that it may enter into a grander self-acquaintance or solitude; and it goes alone for a season, that it may exalt its conversation or society.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.