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.
