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
self-confidence hands ability
Nothing so bolsters our self-confidence and reconciles us with ourselves as the continuous ability to create; to see things grow and develop under our hand, day in, day out.
accomplished ask-me sentences
If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences.
management affair practicals
Failure in the management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for success in the management of public affairs.
guilty feels fearful
Those who feel guilty are afraid; and those who are afraid somehow feel guilty. To the onlooker, too, the fearful seem guilty.
calumny-is gullibility knows
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
diversity vehement literature
We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.
integrity balance taste
Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps moral integrity.
communism crime consideration
The great crimes of the twentieth century were committed not by money-grubbing capitalists but by dedicated idealists. Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler were contemptuous of money. The passage from the nineteenth to the twentieth century has been a passage from considerations of money to considerations of power.
effectiveness profound sublime
The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine however profound and sublime will be effective unless it is presented as the embodiment of the one and only truth
excellence desire realizing
The readiness to praise others indicates a desire for excellence and perhaps an ability to realize it.
echoes world quarrels
Our quarrel with the world is an echo of the endless quarrel proceeding within us.
originality shows
Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which we borrow from others.
guilty propaganda reason
Propaganda ... serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.
reassurance weak greater
What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else?