Eric Hoffer ( 10 of 253 )
...there is no alienation that a little power will not cure.
...there is no alienation that a little power will not cure.
Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
Freedom released the energies of the masses not by exhilarating but by unbalancing, irritating, and goading.
Add a few drops of malice to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.
Add a few drops of malice to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.
Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which read more
Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which we borrow from others.
Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.
Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.
Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. read more
Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. Where there is the necessary skill to move mountains there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to read more
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self and begin a new life. They try to realize this desire either by finding a new identity or by blurring and camouflaging their individual distinctness; and both these ends are reached by imitation.
The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything. - The Passionate State of the Mind, 1954.
The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything. - The Passionate State of the Mind, 1954.
A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it read more
A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaningless of an individual existence. It cures the poignantly frustrated not by conferring upon them an absolute truth or by remedying the difficulties and abuses which made their lives miserable, but by freeing them from their ineffectual selves- and it does this by enfolding and absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant corporate whole.
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.
