Eric Hoffer

The danger inherent in reform is that the cure may be worse than the disease. Reform is an operation on read more

The danger inherent in reform is that the cure may be worse than the disease. Reform is an operation on the social body; but unlike medical surgeons, reformers are not on guard against unpredictable side effects which may divert the course of reform toward unwanted results. Moreover, quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.

The better part of statesmanship might be to know clearly and precisely what not to do.

The better part of statesmanship might be to know clearly and precisely what not to do.

Discontent does not invariably create a desire for change. Other factors have to be present before discontent turns into disaffection. read more

Discontent does not invariably create a desire for change. Other factors have to be present before discontent turns into disaffection. One of these is a sense of power.

The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is read more

The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is hardly an atrocity committed in the twentieth century that was not foreshadowed or even advocated by some noble man of words in the nineteenth.

Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling read more

Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted.