The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause."
- Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements" (1951)
To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance."
- Eric Hoffer in "The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms"(1955)
We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand. A doctrine that is understood is shorn of its strength."
Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements"(1951)
The Savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets. There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience; a readiness to attempt the impossible; a bias for simple solutions — to cut the knot rather than unravel it; the viewing of compromise as surrender; the tendency to manipulate people and "experiment with blood." Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power."
- Eric Hoffer in "Reflections on the Human Condition" (1973)
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind."
- Eric Hoffer in "The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms"(1955)
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."
- Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements" (1951)
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves."
- Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements"(1951)
There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless."
- Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements"(1951)
We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom." It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility?"
- Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements"(1951)
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both."
- Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements"(1951)
The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients. The gifted propagandist brings to a boil ideas and passions already simmering in the minds of his hearers. he echoes their innermost feelings. Where opinion is not coerced, people can be made to believe only in what they already "know."
Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements" (1951)
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than of deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without."
- Eric Hoffer in "The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms"(1955)
A fateful process is set in motion when the individual is released "to the freedom of his own impotence" and left to justify his existence by his own efforts. The autonomous individual, striving to realize himself and prove his worth, has created all that is great in literature, art, music, science and technology. The autonomous individual, also, when he can neither realize himself nor justify his existence by his own efforts, is a breeding call of frustration, and the seed of the convulsions which shake our world to its foundations.
The individual on his own is stable only so long as he is possessed of self-esteem. The maintenance of self-esteem is a continuous task which taxes all of the individual's powers and inner resources. We have to prove our worth and justify our existence anew each day. When, for whatever reason, self-esteem is unattainable, the autonomous individual becomes a highly explosive entity. He turns away from an unpromising self and plunges into the pursuit of pride — the explosive substitute for self-esteem. All social disturbances and upheavals have their roots in crises of individual self-esteem, and the great endeavor in which the masses most readily unite is basically a search for pride.
- Eric Hoffer in "The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms"(1955)
To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats — we know it not."
- Eric Hoffer in "The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms"(1955)
The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion — it is an evil government.
- Eric Hoffer in "The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms"(1955)
Rabid suspicion has nothing in it of skepticism. The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
- Eric Hoffer in "The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms"(1955)
We are ready to die for an opinion but not for a fact: indeed, it is by our readiness to die that we try to prove the factualness of our opinion.
- Eric Hoffer in "Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook" (2005)
It is probably true that business corrupts everything it touches. It corrupts politics, sports, literature, art, labor unions and so on. But business also corrupts and undermines monolithic totalitarianism. Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment."
- Eric Hoffer in "Thoughts of Eric Hoffer, Including: 'Absolute Faith Corrupts Absolutely'", The New York Times Magazine(1971)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer
"Eric Hoffer (July 25, 1902 – May 21, 1983) was an American social writer. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that his book The Ordeal of Change was his finest work. In 2001, the Eric Hoffer Award was established in his honor with permission granted by the Eric Hoffer Estate in 2005."
