The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.
ERIC HOFFERNever have the young taken themselves so seriously, and the calamity is that they are listened to and deferred to by so many adults.
More Eric Hoffer Quotes
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Language was invented to ask questions.
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The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor’s shortcomings as he is of his own.
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A great man’s greatest good luck is to die at the right time.
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We see through others only when we see through ourselves.
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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.
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We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
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I can never forget that one of the most gifted, best educated nations in the world, of its own free will, surrendered its fate into the hands of a maniac.
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Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated than any automated machine. To create something in the image of nature is to create a machine, and it was by learning the inner working of nature that man became a builder of machines.
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You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
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One of the chief differences between an adult and a juvenile is that the adult knows when he is an ass while the juvenile never does.
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The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.
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It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
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Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question.
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The trouble is not chiefly that our universities are unfit for students but that many present-day students are unfit for universities.
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Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
ERIC HOFFER