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
order growth development
In an adequate social order, the untalented should be able to acquire a sense of usefulness and of growth without interfering with the development of talent around them
order intellectual economy
A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.
home men order
A plant needs roots in order to grow. With man it is the other way around: only when he grows does he have roots and feels at home in the world.
creativity order chaos
Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
corrupts destroy hate injustice power resentment spring weakness wherever wickedness
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of their inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is in their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it.
america cannot hurry leisure needs nor people perpetual preserved result state
The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things out; it needs leisure to mature. People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility.
imitation rudeness strength weak
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength
attitude extreme flight self
Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self
bankruptcy hope sort soul
Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.
beside character figure figured name quality rest worried
I wasn't worried about typecasting - I thought I'd figure that out down the road. I figured that, with the quality of the show, Will was going to be my epitaph. It was more about ""Is this the one character I want beside my name for the rest of eternity?
easier humanity love neighbor
It is easier to love humanity than to love your neighbor
finish man mistake neglected paying
Man was nature's mistake -she neglected to finish him - and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.
others ourselves
We can see through others only when we see through ourselves
against believe echo enemies enjoy example explain eyes friendship gets guard happen however image others ourselves reflection shape tend unless
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.