Power can mean one of two things, domination or potency. Far from being identical, these two qualities are mutually exclusive. Impotence,using the term not only with regard to the sexual sphere but to allspheres of human potentialities, results in the sadistic striving for domination; to the extent to which an individual is potent, that is,able to realize his potentialities on the basis of freedom and integrity of his self, he does not need to dominate and is lacking the lust for power. Power, in the sense of domination, is the perversion of potency, just as sexual sadism is the perversion of sexual love.
– Erich Fromm
GREAT quotation.
This agrees with basically everything I believe. Thank you.
this quote single handedly elevates fromm out of my hitherto unimpressed opinion of him