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
reflection world changing-the-world
The craving to change the world is perhaps a reflection of the craving to change ourselves.
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.
self roots our-world
It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.
attitude self world
Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world.
hate wrath world
It seems that when we are oppressed by the knowledge of our worthlessness we do not see ourselves as lower than some and higher than others, but as lower than the lowest of mankind. We hate then the whole world, and we would pour our wrath upon the whole of creation.
opposites age world
For though ours is a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious. The true believer is everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing he is shaping the world in his own image. And whether we are to line up with him or against him, it is well that we should know all we can concerning his nature and potentialities.
echoes world quarrels
Our quarrel with the world is an echo of the endless quarrel proceeding within us.
depression world seems
The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
business people world
When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are the busiest people in the world.
death dying world
How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.
world passionate obsession
A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one's own life
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