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Quotes of Eric Hoffer (Germany)1871-1962 British Poet
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It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities. (opportunity)
Sometimes we feel the loss of a prejudice as a loss of vigor. (prejudice)
More significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers compose unintelligible music is that people should admire what they cannot understand; indeed, admire that which has no meaning or principle. (obscurity)
Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented. (originality)
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It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents. (opportunity)
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of their inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is in their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it. (power)
The unpredictability inherent in human affairs is due largely to the fact that the by-products of a human process are more fateful than the product. (prediction)
A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority. (minorities)
Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. (sin)
To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life. (resentment)
Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident. (science fiction)
Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from. (space)
There is a totalitarian regime inside every one of us. We are ruled by a ruthless politburo which sets our norms and drives us from one five-year plan to another. The autonomous individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. (totalitarianism)
The main effect of a real revolution is perhaps that it sweeps away those who do not know how to wish, and brings to the front men with insatiable appetites for action, power and all that the world has to offer. (revolutions and revo)
Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. (self-esteem)
Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains. (technology)
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. (self-esteem)
Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the purity of motives. (society)
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails. (protest)
We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution. (revolutions and revo)
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. (talkativeness)
Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors; they can be smelled. (self-image)
We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meaning to our suffering. We need as much something to suffer for as something to live for. (purpose)
The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves. (sacrifice)
No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are. (self-image)
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Hoffer, Eric | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5]
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