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
dream past civilization
It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and present -- are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged through the millenia.
men practice play
Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of man, we usually reach the realm of play.
society quality improvement
Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives.
god stars airplane
Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.
desire different intense
Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.
art creativity creative
Creativity is discontent translated into arts.
thinking way revolution
We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.
fashion new-beginnings simple
The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mind -- the mind of a fighter -- in which the virtues of tribal cohesion and fierceness and infantile credulity and malleability are paramount. Thus every new beginning recapitulates in some degree man's first beginning.
freedom fire frying-pans
We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire.
friends real believe
Friendship Never explain -- your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway. A real friend never gets in your way, unless you happen to be on the way down. A friend is someone you can do nothing with and enjoy it. However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. It is not so much the example of others we imitate, as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words.
inspirational fear people
The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.
addiction tables way
Our present addiction to pollsters and forecasters is a symptom of our chronic uncertainty about the future... We watch our experts read the entrails of statistical tables and graphs the way the ancients watched their soothsayers read the entrails of a chicken.
bores-you boredom people
When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.
assuming contagious generalization
We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.