Eric Hoffer

We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.

We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom read more

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom.".

Whence come these hatreds...? They are an expression of a desperate effort to suppress an awareness of our inadequacy, worthlessness, read more

Whence come these hatreds...? They are an expression of a desperate effort to suppress an awareness of our inadequacy, worthlessness, guilt and other shortcomings of the self. Self-contempt is here transmuted into hatred of others- and there is a most determined and persistent effort to mask this switch.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the degree to which we are influenced by those we influence.

A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical read more

A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.