 |
|
|
|
Quotes of Eric Hoffer (Germany)1871-1962 British Poet
|
|
We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents. (talent)
An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head. (stupidity)
With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves. (solitude)
A man by himself is in bad company. (solitude)
| |
One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action --the ability to pass directly from thought to action. (action)
The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of turns, achievements, disappointments, surprises, and crises is a life full of landmarks. The empty life has even its few details blurred, and cannot be remembered with certainty. (autobiography)
Man is the only creature that strives to surpass himself, and yearns for the impossible. (ambition)
Old age equalizes -- we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world. (age and aging)
The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness. (age and aging)
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. (america)
The greatest weariness comes from work not done. (discontent)
It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny. (frustration)
To grow old is to grow common. Old age equalizes -- we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world. (age and aging)
The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself. (existence)
We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about. (bigotry)
Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. (affectation)
Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice. (dissipation)
Though dissenters seem to question everything in sight, they are actually bundles of dusty answers and never conceived a new question. What offends us most in the literature of dissent is the lack of hesitation and wonder. (dissent)
The beginning of thought is in disagreement -- not only with others but also with ourselves. (dissent)
Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end results of (achievement)
Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults. (adolescence)
The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. De Tocqueville points out that it is at times when passions start to govern human affairs that ideas are most obviously translated into political action. The translation of ideas into action is usually in the hands of people least likely to follow rational motives. Hence, it is that action is often the nemesis of ideas, and sometimes of the men who formulate them. One of the marks of the truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action the ability to pass directly from thought to action. (action)
When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths. (bigotry)
The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. It is a pleasant surprise to ourselves. (favors)
Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the true revolutionary in a Communist country. (capitalism)
|
Hoffer, Eric | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5]
|
|
New quotes through 17 days is 0
|
|
|
|
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wen |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
| Oct | | | | | | 31 | 1 |
| Nov | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 [25] | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Nov | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| Nov | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| Nov | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| Nov | 30 | 1 | | | | | | | |
|
|
|
