Understanding a person does not mean condoning; it only means that one does not accuse him as if one were God or a judge placed above him.

Fromm distinguishes empathetic understanding from moral exoneration. To “understand” another person—psychologically and socially—is to grasp the forces, fears, needs, and histories that shape their actions. That act of comprehension does not erase responsibility or harm; rather, it restrains the impulse to condemn from a position of imagined omniscience. The comparison to “God or a judge” targets self-righteousness: the tendency to treat one’s own standpoint as absolute and to reduce others to a single deed or flaw. For Fromm, mature humanism requires humility and compassion alongside ethical discernment, replacing accusatory judgment with informed, humane evaluation.