Hoffer 3

More of the wisdom of Eric Hoffer. I'm putting some of his aphorisms on the internet because I suspect that most people are as unaware of them as they are of him. The quotations, themselves, are in the order that I found them. They have no meaning as a unified whole, but they're thought-provoking. At least I hope you'll find them so as I do.

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Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage.

Absolute power is partial to simplicity. It wants simple problems, simple solutions, simple definitions. It sees in complication a product of weakness – the torturous path compromise must follow. There is thus a certain similarity between the pattern of extremism and that of absolute power.

Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart. For we can win a man's heart one day and lose it the next. But when we break a proud spirit we achieve something that is final and absolute.

When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint meaningfully at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

Though the reformer is seen as a champion of change, he actually looks down on anything that can be changed. Only that which is corrupt and inferior must be subjected to the treatment of change. The reformer prides himself on the possession of an eternal unchangeable truth. It is his hostility toward things as they are which goads him to change them; he is as it were inflicting on them an indignity. Hence his passion for change is not infrequently a destructive passion.

There is always a chance that he who sets himself as his brother's keeper will end up by being his jailkeeper.

There is perhaps in all misfits a powerful craving to turn the whole of humanity into misfits. Hence partly their passionate advocacy of a drastic new social order. For we are all misfits when we have to adjust ourselves to the wholly new.

The real “haves” are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real “have nots” are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can only feel free by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.

The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly the feeling it gives us that we are not altogether worthless. It is a pleasant surprise to ourselves.

To find the cause of our ills in something outside ourselves, something specific that can be spotted and eliminated, is a diagnosis that cannot fail to appeal. To say that the cause of our troubles is not in us but in the Jews, and pass immediately to the extermination of the Jews, is likely to find a wide acceptance.

Our impulse to persuade others is strongest when we have to persuade ourselves. The never wholly successful task of persuading ourselves of our worth manifests itself in a ceaseless effort to persuade others of it.

Those who would sacrifice a generation to realize an ideal are the enemies of mankind.

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.

There are people who seem continually engaged in an effort of self-proselytizing. To whomever they may talk or write it is to themselves they are talking or writing. They are continually engaged in talking or writing themselves into a conviction, an enthusiasm or an illusion.