A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.
ERIC HOFFERIt is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.
More Eric Hoffer Quotes
-
-
Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable then those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence.
ERIC HOFFER -
It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.
ERIC HOFFER -
The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operating table, they operate on it with an ax.
ERIC HOFFER -
The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas.
ERIC HOFFER -
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
ERIC HOFFER -
Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.
ERIC HOFFER -
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.
ERIC HOFFER -
An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
ERIC HOFFER -
The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER -
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
ERIC HOFFER -
Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.
ERIC HOFFER -
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.
ERIC HOFFER -
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER -
Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
ERIC HOFFER -
The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.
ERIC HOFFER