“To be loved because of one's merit, because one deserves it, always leaves doubt; maybe I did not please the person whom I want to love me, maybe this, or that - there is always a fear that love could disappear.”
Source: The Art of Loving
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Erich Fromm 119
German social psychologist and psychoanalyst 1900–1980Related quotes

On why she wrote Behold the Dreamers in “Imbolo Mbue on Empathy and the Price of the American Dream” https://lithub.com/imbolo-mbue-on-empathy-and-the-price-of-the-american-dream/ in Lit Hub (2017 Jun 1)

“Because I love My Father, I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.”
Thus spoke our holy Master, and every soul who wants to live close to Him must also live this maxim. The divine good pleasure must be its food, its daily bread; it must let itself be immolated by all the Father's wishes in the likeness of His adored Christ. Each incident, each event, each suffering, as well as each joy, is a sacrament which gives God to it; so it no longer makes a distinction between these things; it surmounts them, goes beyond them to rest in its Master, above all things.
Third Day, 10
Heaven in Faith (1906)

Source: East of Eden (1952)
Context: Maybe that's the reason," Adam said slowly, feeling his way. "Maybe if I had loved him I would have been jealous of him. You were. Maybe-maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself? I can see it pretty clearly. I can see how you loved him and what it did to you. I did not love him. Maybe he loved me. He tested me and hurt me and punished me and finally he sent me out like a sacrifice, maybe to make up for something. But he did not love you, and so he had faith in you. Maybe — why, maybe it's a kind of reverse.