You Shall Be as Gods Quotes

“The essence of the Torah is the command: Do not do unto others as you should not want them to do unto you—the rest is commentary. Go and study.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Traditions

“Independence is not achieved simply by not obeying mother, father, state, and the like. Independence is not the same as disobedience. Independence is possible only if, and according to the degree to which, man actively grasps the world, is related to it, and thus becomes one with it. There is no independence and no freedom unless man arrives at the stage of complete inner activity and productivity.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition

“the concept of the halakhah31 that man must act not only according to general principles of justice, truth, and love, but that every act of life be “sanctified,” becoming imbued with a religious spirit. “Right action” refers to everything: to the prayer in the morning, to the benediction over food, to the sight of the ocean and of the first flower of the season, to helping the poor, to visiting the sick, to not making a man ashamed in the presence of others.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition

“In this very fact that the messiah is a symbol of a new historical period, and not a savior, lies one decisive difference between the Jewish concept and the one developed by the Christian Church.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition

“we must admit that all human history so far (perhaps with the exception of certain primitive societies) has been based on force: the force and power of a prosperous minority over a majority who work hard and enjoy little.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition

“Those who have suffered and started the revolution cannot go beyond the limits their past sets for them. Only those who have not been born in slavery may succeed in achieving the promised land.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition

“Messianism is not accidental to man’s existence but the inherent, logical answer to it—the alternative to man’s self-destruction.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition

“Man is not a subject opposing the world in order to transform it; he is in the world making his being in the world the occasion for constant self-transformation”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition

“Man transfers his own passions and qualities to the idol. The more he impoverishes himself, the greater and stronger becomes the idol.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition

“Yet this absolute power of God over man is counterbalanced by the idea that man is God's potential rival.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Traditions