The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
Interpretation
Success and failure in revolution are defined by perception; statesmen are seen as successful while criminals are not.
This quote by Erich Fromm reflects the idea that the outcomes of revolutionary actions are often judged by their success or failure. Those who achieve their revolutionary goals are celebrated as statesmen, embodying political legitimacy, while those who do not succeed are deemed criminals, reflecting societal disapproval. It highlights the subjective nature of morality and the distinction between acceptance and condemnation based on the results of one's efforts.
In practice
During a speech about political change, one could reference this quote to spark discussion about the nature of revolutions.
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.
The way the public sees it is this. If we don't leave, we are idiots. If we do leave but don't succeed in our mission, we are incompetent. But if we do succeed, it's because it was easy and anyone could have done it.
My aim is to institute perpetual adoration," he said, for this is the "the most important activity.
I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.
Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends.
We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villians by compulsion.
An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects.
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