Eric Hoffer
Eric Hoffer
Eric Hofferwas an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer, was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that The Ordeal of Change was his finest work...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth25 July 1902
CountryUnited States of America
death real believe
There is need for some kind of make-believe in order to face death unflinchingly. To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for.
humility pride substitution
Humility is not renunciation of pride but the substitution of one pride for another.
keys mind reader
A good sentence is a key . It unlocks the mind of the reader.
promise population action
There is nothing more explosive than a skilled population condemned to inaction. Such a population is likely to become a hotbed of extremism and intolerance, and be receptive to any proselytizing ideology, however absurd and vicious, which promises vast action.
running progress society
In human affairs, the best stimulus for running ahead is to have something we must run from.
integrity balance taste
Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps moral integrity.
struggle shelter poverty
The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility
thinking ideas people
Some people have no original ideas because they do not think well enough of themselves to consider their ideas worth noticing and developing.
dream lying wrath
When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed.
evil deception able
Judgment consists not in seeing through deceptions and evil intentions, but in being able to awaken the decency dormant in every person.
growing-up children creative
Both the revolutionary and the creative individual are perpetual juveniles. The revolutionary does not grow up because he cannot grow, while the creative individual cannot grow up because he keeps growing.
negotiation grievance poignant
A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.
people hustle balance
In a modern society people can live without hope only when kept dazed and out of breath by incessant hustling.
movement strange should
It is a strange thing that both the injurer and the injured, the sinner and he who is sinned against, should find in the mass movement an escape from a blemished life.