Eric Hoffer ( 10 of 253 )
There is no reason why humanity cannot be served equally by weighty and trivial motives.
There is no reason why humanity cannot be served equally by weighty and trivial motives.
It needs fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice.
It needs fanatical faith to rationalize our cowardice.
There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and proneness to credulity. The urge to escape our real self read more
There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and proneness to credulity. The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious. The refusal to see ourselves as we are develops a distaste for facts and cold logic. There is no hope for the frustrated in the actual and the possible. Salvation can come to them only from the miraculous, which seeps through a crack in the iron wall of inexorable reality. They asked to be deceived.
In human affairs, the best stimulus for running ahead is to have something we must run from.
In human affairs, the best stimulus for running ahead is to have something we must run from.
The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born read more
The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born of selflessness.
The wise learn from the experience of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go read more
The wise learn from the experience of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way.
In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes- courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, and so on- read more
In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes- courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, and so on- can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion, even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations.
The aspiration toward freedom is the most essentially human of all human manifestations.
We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us read more
We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us as rivals and trespassers. But we always look for allies when we hate.
The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned read more
The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned against are indeed depraved creatures, deserving every punishment, even extermination. We cannot pity those we have wronged, nor can we be indifferent toward them. We must hate and persecute them or else leave the door open to self-contempt.
