Q0478

Erich Fromm

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a standing in, not a falling for.
Thinker Erich Fromm
School Humanism
Source The Art of Loving
Theme Love
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with The Art of Loving, within the tradition of Humanism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of love, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Erich Fromm's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Erich Fromm. (n.d.). Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a standing in, not a falling for. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0478

MLA: Erich Fromm. “Love is an activity, not a passive affect;….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0478.

Chicago: Erich Fromm. “Love is an activity, not a passive affect;….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0478.

Same thinker

More from Erich Fromm

  1. Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

All quotations by Erich Fromm

Same theme

More on love

  1. Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.
  2. A friend is another self.
  3. If you wish to be loved, love.
  4. Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
  5. Compassion is the basis of morality.

Browse the love theme