Eric Hoffer ( 10 of 253 )
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.
We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.
We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.
Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do read more
Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.
The great crimes of the twentieth century were committed not by money-grubbing capitalists but by dedicated idealists. Lenin, Stalin, and read more
The great crimes of the twentieth century were committed not by money-grubbing capitalists but by dedicated idealists. Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler were contemptuous of money. The passage from the nineteenth to the twentieth century has been a passage from considerations of money to considerations of power. How naive the cliche that money is the root of evil!
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.
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.
...when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are read more
...when we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgement. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom- freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse. Herein undoubtedly lies part of the attractiveness of a mass movement.
All mass movements avail themselves of action as a means of unification. The conflicts a mass movement seeks and incites read more
All mass movements avail themselves of action as a means of unification. The conflicts a mass movement seeks and incites serve not only to down its enemies but also to strip its followers of their distinct individuality and render them more soluble in the collective medium.
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.
