Lecture, from the book The Art of Loving. Is Love Possible in a Repressive Civilization? by E. Fromm:
“Only he who has faith in himself is capable of being faithful to others; only he can be certain that, for them, he will be in the future as he is today, and that, consequently, he will feel and act as he feels and acts now. Faith in oneself is a condition of one’s ability to make promises, and since, as Nietzsche said, man can be defined by his ability to make promises, faith is one of the conditions of human existence. What matters, in relation to love, is faith in one’s own love and in one’s ability to inspire love in others. Having faith in a person also means having faith in the potential of others.”