Eric Hoffer ( 10 of 253 )
The great crimes of the twentieth century were committed not by money-grubbing capitalists but by dedicated idealists. Lenin, Stalin, and read more
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. How naive the cliche that money is the root of evil!
The craving to change the world is perhaps a reflection of the craving to change ourselves.
The craving to change the world is perhaps a reflection of the craving to change ourselves.
The Greeks invented logic but were not fooled by it.
The Greeks invented logic but were not fooled by it.
Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something read more
Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have. It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.
All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, read more
All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance; all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind faith and singlehearted allegiance.
There is perhaps no better way of measuring the natural endowment of a soul than by its ability to transmute read more
There is perhaps no better way of measuring the natural endowment of a soul than by its ability to transmute dissatisfaction into a creative impulse. The genuine artist is as much a dissatisfied person as the revolutionary, yet how diametrically opposed are the products each distills from his dissatisfaction.
Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do read more
Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.
The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a read more
The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure.
What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist.
What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist.
There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it
There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it
