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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.

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

Doctor Humanity Room Sick Soul World
To learn you need a certain degree of confidence, not too much and not too little. If you have too little confidence, you will think you can’t learn. If you have too much, you will think you don’t have to learn.
ERIC HOFFER

Confidence Learning Need Thinking Yourself
Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.
ERIC HOFFER

Guilty Justice Right Voice
You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.
ERIC HOFFER

Enough Happiness Need Philosophy Wisdom Yourself
We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.
ERIC HOFFER

Reality Understand
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 beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Agreement Beginning Ourselves Thinking
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Betrayal Help People
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 HOFFER

Feeling Freedom Opinion Willing
Anger is a prelude to courage.
ERIC HOFFER

Angry Courage One Liner
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
ERIC HOFFER

Attraction Evil Power Promise Weakness
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.
ERIC HOFFER

Born Evil Government Human Kindness Life Sick Willing
When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Boredom Oneself People
Up to now, America has not been a good milieu for the rise of a mass movement. What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.
ERIC HOFFER

End Goodness Military Rise
The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.
ERIC HOFFER

Alone Country Easy History People
Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.
ERIC HOFFER

Cheating Feeling Himself Missing Right Thinking Trust Wonderful World
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
It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.
ERIC HOFFER

Difference Doubt Fight Freedom Oppression Power Pride
What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people’s faces as unfinished as their minds.
ERIC HOFFER

Appearance Face Mindset People Walk
To know a person’s religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.
ERIC HOFFER

Brand Faith Listening Need Person Professional Religion Tolerance
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.
ERIC HOFFER

Business Character Man Mindset People Worth
Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possible.
ERIC HOFFER

Choice Goodness Habit Live Possible
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
A passionate obsession with the outside world or the private lives of others is an attempt to compensate for a lack of meaning in one’s own life.
ERIC HOFFER

Life Live Obsession Passionate World
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.
ERIC HOFFER

Cure Privacy Sick Trouble
Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.
ERIC HOFFER

Change Deep Poison Truth Yourself
I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.
ERIC HOFFER

Mindset Myself Prejudice

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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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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Popular Authors

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