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
views names common-sense
The well adjusted make poor prophets. A pleasant existence blinds us to the possibilities of drastic change. We cling to what we call our common sense, our practical point of view. Actually, these are names for an all-absorbing familiarity with things as they are. . . . Thus it happens that when the times become unhinged, it is the practical people who are caught unaware . . . still clinging to things that no longer exist.
art discovery creative
There is probably nothing more sublime than discontent transmuted into a work of art, a scientific discovery, and so on.
want-something frustrated want
He who has nothing and wants something is less frustrated than he who has something and wants more.
communication world lines
No totalitarian censor can approach the implacability of the censor who controls the line of communication between the outer world and our consciousness. Nothing is allowed to reach us which might weaken our confidence and lower our morale. To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth.
taken adults calamity
Never have the young taken themselves so seriously, and the calamity is that they are listened to and deferred to by so many adults.
education teaching trying
We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.
mind chastity chaste
There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.
love peace malcontent
A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.
loneliness sadness thinking
The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness. The remarkable thing is that the cessation of the inner dialogue marks also the end of our concern with the world around us. It is as if we noted the world and think about it only when we have to report it to ourselves.
thinking men divided
A man's worth is what he is divided by what he thinks he is.
motivational learning time-and-change
In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.
sad i-miss-you dog
It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.
humility self guilty-conscience
There is a guilty conscience behind every brazen word and act and behind every manifestation of self-righteousness.
humility men self
The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.