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Eric Hoffer Quotes - Page 23

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The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.

The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.

Power Corrupts, Inhumanity, Absolute Power

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

It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.

Meaningful, Men, Skills

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

The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.

Creativity, Self, Creative

"Thoughts of Eric Hoffer, Including: 'Absolute Faith Corrupts Absolutely'". The New York Times Magazine, p. 52, April 25, 1971.

The original insight is most likely to come when elements stored in different compartments of the mind drift into the open, jostle one another, and now and then form new combinations.

Mind, Different, Elements

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

Originality is deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest.

Originality, Protest, Deliberate

'Passionate State of Mind' (1955) p. 21

There is probably nothing more sublime than discontent transmuted into a work of art, a scientific discovery, and so on.

Art, Discovery, Creative

Eric Hoffer (1969). “Working and Thinking on the Waterfront: A Journal, June 1958-May 1959”

It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power - power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.

Want, Oppressed, Oppressors

"War and Conflict Quotations: A Worldwide Dictionary". Book by Jean Freestone Thomsett and Michael Thomsett, 1997.

To think out a problem is not unlike drawing a caricature. You have to exaggerate the salient point and leave out that which is not typical. "To illustrate a principle ," says Bagehot , "you must exaggerate much and you must omit much." As to the quantity of absolute truth in a thought : it seems to me the more comprehensive and unobjectionable a thought becomes, the more clumsy and unexciting it gets. I like half-truths of a certain kind they are interesting and they stimulate.

Thinking, Drawing, Interesting

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

How terribly hard and almost impossible it is to tell the truth. More than anything else, the artist in us prevents us from telling aught as it really happened. We deal with the truth as the cook deals with meat and vegetables.

Artist, Vegetables, Meat

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

All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

Prayer, Coincidence, Reaching

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

Successful action tends to become an end in itself.

Success, Successful, Action

Eric Hoffer (1980). “The True Believer”

The conservatism of a religion - it's orthodoxy - is the inert coagulum of a once highly reactive sap.

Sap, Orthodoxy, Conservatism

Eric Hoffer (2011). “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements”, p.4, Harper Collins

There is no telling to what extremes of cruelty and ruthlessness a man will go when he is freed from the fears, hesitations, doubts and the vague stirrings of decency that go with individual judgement. When we lose our individual independence in the corporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom- freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse. Herein undoubtedly lies part of the attractiveness of a mass movement

Lying, Hate, Men

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

The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause. God wishes, said Calvin, that one should put aside all humanity when it is a question of striving for His glory.

Dedication, Self, Humanity

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

To lose one's life is but to lose the present; and, clearly, to lose a defiled, worthless present is not to lose much.

Life Is, Loses, Worthless

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

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.

Sad, I Miss You, Missing You

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.

Loneliness, Sadness, Thinking

"Reflections on the Human Condition". Book by Eric Hoffer, Section 165, 1973.

To be ruthless requires belief that our life on earth is but a brief prelude to an afterlife, or a temporary sacrifice before some utopia can be instituted. Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains.

Moving, Sacrifice, Skills

1955 The Passionate State of Mind.

In a trader-dominated society, the scribe is usually kept out of the management of affairs, but it given a more or less free hand in the cultural field. By frustrating the scribe's craving for commanding action, the trader draws upon himself the scribe's wrath and scorn.

Wrath, Hands, Fields

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

To the creative individual all experience is seminal-all events are equidistant from new ideasand insights.

Creative, Experience, Events

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

The Renaissance was a time of mercenary soldiers, ours is a time of mercenary labor.

Time, Soldier, Renaissance

"Before the Sabbath". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1979.

To a man utterly without a sense of belonging, mere life is all that matters. It is the only reality in an eternity of nothingness, and he clings to it with shameless despair.

Reality, Men, Despair

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

Unity and self-sacrifice, of themselves, even when fostered by the most noble means, produce a facility for hating. Even when men league themselves mightily together to promote tolerance and peace on earth, they are likely to be violently intolerant toward those not of a like mind.

Hate, Mean, Sacrifice

ERIC HOFFER (1963). “THE TRUE BELIEVER”

The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. What looks like a giving hand is often a holding on for dear life. Take away our holy duties and you leave our lives puny and meaningless. There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.

Self Esteem, Humility, Hands

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

The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.

Attitude, Doubt, Conviction

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

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