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Eric Hoffer Quotes - Page 22

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We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.

We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.

Diversity, Literature, Vehement

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse.

Legitimacy, Creeds, Impulse

Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

It is thus with most of us; we are what other people say we are. We know ourselves chiefly by hearsay.

Character, People, Gossip

Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society.

Clamor, Believer, True Believer

Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

Even the sober desire for progress is sustained by faith—faith in the intrinsic goodness of human nature and in the omnipotence of science. It is a defiant and blasphemous faith, not unlike that held by the men who set out to build a "city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven" and who believed that "nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Men, Omnipotence, Cities

Eric Hoffer (2011). “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements”, p.8, Harper Collins

The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new . . . is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.

Work, Tasks, Firsts

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

To be aware how fruitful the playful mood can be is to be immune to the propaganda of the alienated, which extols resentment as a fuel of achievement.

Achievement, Fuel, Resentment

When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint menacingly at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

Evil, Giving, Promise

We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are never of one kind, that we never love without reservations and never hate with all our being cannot prevent us from seeing others as wholly black or white.

Love, Hate, Knowledge

What merit there is in my thinking is derived from two peculiarities: (1) My inability to be familiar with anything. I simply can't take things for granted. (2) My endless patience. I assume that the only way to find an answer is to hang on long enough and keep groping.

Thinking, Two, Long

"Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" by Tom Bethell in "Harper's Magazine", Entry (1951), July 2005.

This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation of what we are but with the building up of an imaginary conception of ourselves in the opinion of others. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.

Men, Building Up, Effort

"Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" by Tom Bethell in Harper's Magazine, July 2005.

Our doubts about ourselves cannot be banished except by working at that which is the one and only thing we know we ought to do. Other people's assertions cannot silence the howling dirge within us. It is our talents rusting unused within us that secrete the poison of self-doubt into our bloodstream.

Self, People, Silence

"Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" by Tom Bethell in Harper's Magazine, July 2005.

We are ready to die for an opinion but not for a fact: indeed, it is by our readiness to die that we try to prove the factualness of our opinion.

Trying, Facts, Opinion

"Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" by Tom Bethell in Harper's Magazine, July 2005.

The impulse to think, to philosophize and spin beauty and brilliance out of mind and soul, is somehow the offspring of resistance of an effort to overcome an apparently insurmountable obstacle. Hence cultural creativeness is more likely to flourish in an atmosphere of restriction, of an imposed pattern of thought and behavior, than in one of total freedom.

Thinking, Effort, Soul

"Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" by Tom Bethell in Harper's Magazine, July 2005.

Whenever we proclaim the uniqueness of a religion , a truth , a leader, a nation, a race, a part or a holy cause, we are also proclaiming our own uniqueness.

Race, Leader, Causes

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

When cowardice becomes a fashion its adherents are without number, and it masquerades as forbearance, reasonableness and whatnot.

Fashion, Numbers, Cowardice

"First Things, Last Things". Book by Eric Hoffer. Chapter 8: "Thoughts on the Present", 1971.

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.

Growing Up, Evil, Trying

"Reflections on the Human Condition". Book by Eric Hoffer. Section 26, 1973.

The well-adjusted make poor prophets.

Poor, Prophet, Wells

Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

Every device employed to bolster individual freedom must have as its chief purpose the impairment of the absoluteness of power. The indications are that such an impairment is brought about not by strengthening the individual and pitting him against the possessors of power, but by distributing and diversifying power and pitting one category or unit of power against the other. Where power is one, the defeated individual, however strong and resourceful, can have no refuge and no recourse.

Strong, Power, Purpose

Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end results of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.

Courage, Pain, Past

Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

The wisdom of others remains dull till it is writ over with our own blood. We are essentially apart from the world; it bursts into our consciousness only when it sinks its teeth and nails into us.

Wisdom, Blood, Teeth

Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to a person's nature by discovering the reasons for his or her imperviousness to certain impressions.

Want, Clue, Reason

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

Passionate intensity may serve as a substitute for confidence.

Passionate, May, Intensity

Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.

Opposites, Together, Society

Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

There is no reason why humanity cannot be served equally by weighty and trivial motives.

Humanity, Reason Why, Motive

Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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