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
Eric Hoffer quotes about
cheering rats ship sinking
It is cheering to see that the rats are still around - the ship is not sinking
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.
happiness time work
The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. 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.
attitude extreme flight self
Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self
finish man mistake neglected paying
Man was nature's mistake -she neglected to finish him - and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.
hang mind onto
But I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind
american-writer cutting element later laying malice people readiness
There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were, laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
cutting element later laying malice ourselves pleasure readiness
There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people: we are laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
others ourselves
We can see through others only when we see through ourselves
call obvious question spell
To spell out the obvious is often to call it into question
achieves momentous sin
To the intellectual, America's unforgivable sin is that it has revolutions without revolutionaries, and achieves the momentous in a matter-of-fact way
cannot intelligence talking
You cannot gage the intelligence of an American by talking with him
hype people doe
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
want critical knows
Far more critical than what we know or what we don't know is what we don't want to know.