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
everyday taste degrees
If a society is to preserve stability and a degree of continuity, it must learn how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, values, and fantasies on everyday life.
drama destiny artist
Practically all writers and artists are aware of their destiny and see themselves as actors in a fateful drama. With me, nothing is momentous: obscure youth, glorious old age, fateful coincidences - nothing really matters. I have written a number of good sentences. I have kept free of delusions. I know I am going to die soon.
life-is loses worthless
To lose one's life is but to lose the present; and, clearly, to lose a defiled, worthless present is not to lose much.
sacrifice enemy generations
Those who would sacrifice a generation to realize an ideal are the enemies of mankind.
christian jesus marxist
Jesus was not a Christian, nor was Marx a Marxist.
orthodoxy sap conservatism
The conservatism of a religion - it's orthodoxy - is the inert coagulum of a once highly reactive sap.
men firsts stranger
Vaguely at first, then more distinctly, I realized that man is an eternal stranger on this planet.
success successful action
Successful action tends to become an end in itself.
nature men perfection
Nature attains perfection, but man never does.
thinking drawing interesting
To think out a problem is not unlike drawing a caricature. You have to exaggerate the salient point and leave out that which is not typical. "To illustrate a principle ," says Bagehot , "you must exaggerate much and you must omit much." As to the quantity of absolute truth in a thought : it seems to me the more comprehensive and unobjectionable a thought becomes, the more clumsy and unexciting it gets. I like half-truths of a certain kind they are interesting and they stimulate.
technology men medicine
One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world's problems will produce anything of lasting value. Such a generation, even when equipped with the most modern technology, will be essentially primitive it will stand in awe of nature, and submit to the tutelage of medicine men.
growing-up evil trying
Good and evil grow up together and are bound in an equilibrium that cannot be sundered. The most we can do is try to tilt the equilibrium toward the good.
mind elements different
The original insight is most likely to come when elements stored in different compartments of the mind drift into the open, jostle one another, and now and then form new combinations.
reflection world changing-the-world
The craving to change the world is perhaps a reflection of the craving to change ourselves.