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Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

Eric Hoffer

Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Eyes Fade Hide Imperfection Ourselves Reveal Scars
Never have the young taken themselves so seriously, and the calamity is that they are listened to and deferred to by so many adults.
ERIC HOFFER

Adult Listening Serious Young
Every successful person has had failures but repeated failure is no guarantee of eventual success.
ERIC HOFFER

Chance Failure Person Repeat Success
You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.
ERIC HOFFER

Enough Happiness Need Philosophy Wisdom Yourself
The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas.
ERIC HOFFER

Creation Creative Dance Ideas Mindset Philosophy Play
The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority.
ERIC HOFFER

Deep Equality Expose Meaning Ourselves Passion Perspective
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
ERIC HOFFER

Corruption Faith Power
Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
ERIC HOFFER

Faith Hate Man People Yourself
It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.
ERIC HOFFER

Compassionate Justice Man Principle Protection
Children are the keys of paradise.
ERIC HOFFER

Children Heaven Key One Liner
One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.
ERIC HOFFER

Freedom Harm Intellectual Privilege Reputation
Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.
ERIC HOFFER

Beginning Confidence Hate Heart Life Lost Way
An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
ERIC HOFFER

Difficult Empty Force Wisdom
Jesus was not a Christian, nor was Marx a Marxist.
ERIC HOFFER

God Identity Perspective Religious
We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Deep Ourselves Philosophy Run
The ratio between supervisory and producing personnel is always highest where the intellectuals are in power. In a Communist country it takes half the population to supervise the other half.
ERIC HOFFER

Country Government High Intellectual Power Production

Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

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Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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