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 HOFFERThe 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 HOFFERA 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 HOFFEROur frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
ERIC HOFFERThe trouble is not chiefly that our universities are unfit for students but that many present-day students are unfit for universities.
ERIC HOFFERTo know a person’s religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.
ERIC HOFFERThe opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.
ERIC HOFFERRudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
ERIC HOFFERMass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.
ERIC HOFFERAdd a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.
ERIC HOFFERTo become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
ERIC HOFFERSelf-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 HOFFERCreativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.
ERIC HOFFERFaith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
ERIC HOFFERShould Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.
ERIC HOFFERLanguage 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.
ERIC HOFFERWe see through others only when we see through ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER