Eric Hoffer ( 10 of 253 )
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!
We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the read more
We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.
The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with read more
The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own.
A man's soul is pierced as it were with holes, and as his longings flow through each they are transmuted read more
A man's soul is pierced as it were with holes, and as his longings flow through each they are transmuted into something specific.
It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a read more
It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is read more
In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced with vehemence and extremism, for we have to convince ourselves that what we took as second choice is the best there ever was. Thus blind faith is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves; insatiable desire a substitute for hope; accumulation a substitute for growth; fervent hustling a substitute for purposeful action; and pride a substitute for an unattainable self-respect.
Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.
In a trader-dominated society, the scribe is usually kept out of the management of affairs, but it given a more read more
In a trader-dominated society, the scribe is usually kept out of the management of affairs, but it given a more or less free hand in the cultural field. By frustrating the scribe's craving for commanding action, the trader draws upon himself the scribe's wrath and scorn.
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.
...the differences between the conservative and the radical seem to spring mainly from their attitude toward the future. Fear of read more
...the differences between the conservative and the radical seem to spring mainly from their attitude toward the future. Fear of the future causes us to lean against and cling to the present, while faith in the future renders us receptive to change.
