The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious. Eric Hoffer More Quotes by Eric Hoffer More Quotes From Eric Hoffer Wordiness is a sickness of American writing. Too many words dilute and blur ideas. Eric Hoffer sickness writing ideas Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith. Eric Hoffer hatred men people We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. Eric Hoffer self-respect self-esteem inspirational The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person. Eric Hoffer doubt evil believe Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Eric Hoffer impulse compassion soul The well adjusted make poor prophets. A pleasant existence blinds us to the possibilities of drastic change. We cling to what we call our common sense, our practical point of view. Actually, these are names for an all-absorbing familiarity with things as they are. . . . Thus it happens that when the times become unhinged, it is the practical people who are caught unaware . . . still clinging to things that no longer exist. Eric Hoffer views names people Words have ruined more souls than any devil's agency. Eric Hoffer devil agency soul What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist. Eric Hoffer cease Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us. Eric Hoffer holocaust israel should Judgment consists not in seeing through deceptions and evil intentions, but in being able to awaken the decency dormant in every person. Eric Hoffer deception able evil The ideal of self-advancement which the civilizing west offers to backward populations brings with it the plague of individual frustration. All the advantages brought by the West are ineffectual substitutes for the sheltering and soothing anonymity of communal existence. Eric Hoffer frustration society self The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born of selflessness. Eric Hoffer ruthlessness selfishness hatred To believe that if only we had this or that we would be happy, or to pursue any excessive desire, diverts us from seeing that happiness depends on an adequate self. Eric Hoffer self desire believe The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. Eric Hoffer links overcoming ideas Anger is a prelude to courage. Eric Hoffer prelude positive We can be satisfied with moderate confidence in ourselves and with a moderately good opinion of ourselves, but the faith we have in a holy cause has to be extravagant and uncompromising. Eric Hoffer holy opinion causes The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breed pride and arrogance. The true believer is apt to see himself as one of the chosen, the salt of the earth, a prince disguised in meekness, who is destined to inherit this earth and the kingdom of heaven, too. He who is not of his faith is evil; he who will not listen shall perish. Eric Hoffer humility religious humble We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when we have something to say, but all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice when we have nothing to say and want desperately to say it. Eric Hoffer few-words want needs Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience... The desire to escape or camouflage their unsatisfactory selves develops in the frustrated a facility for pretending -- for making a show -- and also a readiness to identify themselves wholly with an imposing spectacle. Eric Hoffer frustrated self desire There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet. Eric Hoffer chastity literature mind
