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
faith feeling fervent greatest imposing inner likely movements others plausible practice profession strong
It is also plausible that those movements with the greatest inner contradiction between profession and practice-that is to say with a strong feeling of guilt-are likely to be the most fervent in imposing their faith on others
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.
people society movement
The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure.
devil movement libertarian
Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.
sacrifice self movement
It is part of the formidableness of a genuine mass movement that the self-sacrifice it promotes includes also a sacrifice of some of the moral sense, which cramps and restrains our nature.
movement corporations racket
What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.
cutting element later laying malice ourselves pleasure readiness
There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people: we are laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
american-writer cutting element later laying malice people readiness
There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
achieves momentous sin
To the intellectual, America's unforgivable sin is that it has revolutions without revolutionaries, and achieves the momentous in a matter-of-fact way
attitude extreme flight self
Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self
cannot intelligence talking
You cannot gage the intelligence of an American by talking with him
call obvious question spell
To spell out the obvious is often to call it into question
best capitalism communist liberating true
Capitalism is at its liberating best in a non-capitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the true revolutionary in a Communist country.
act age age-and-aging aware beginning happened happening numbers people untold
Old age equalizes - we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world.