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The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.

Eric Hoffer

All leaders strive to turn their followers into children.
ERIC HOFFER

Children Leadership Transformation
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
The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Agreement Beginning Ourselves Thinking
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
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

Energy Existence Hate Human Life Pattern Strong Struggle Survive Weakness Win
Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Deep Faith Lost Wisdom
Learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
ERIC HOFFER

Beautiful Deal Equipment Existence Learning Truth World
The education explosion is producing a vast number of people who want to live significant, important lives but lack the ability to satisfy this craving for importance by individual achievement. The country is being swamped with nobodies who want to be somebodies.
ERIC HOFFER

Ability Achievement Country Education Important Live People Production Satisfaction
There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
ERIC HOFFER

Doubt Humility Life Practice Selfish Worth
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
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
We run fastest and farthest when we run from ourselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Deep Ourselves Philosophy Run
When people are bored it is primarily with themselves.
ERIC HOFFER

Boredom Oneself People
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
Take man’s most fantastic invention- God. Man invents God in the image of his longings, in the image of what he wants to be, then proceeds to imitate that image, vie with it, and strive to overcome it.
ERIC HOFFER

Atheist God Image Imitation Invention Man
Rudeness is the weak man’s limitation of strength.
ERIC HOFFER

Limitation Man Rude Strength Weakness
What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people’s faces as unfinished as their minds.
ERIC HOFFER

Appearance Face Mindset People Walk
Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.
ERIC HOFFER

Belief Devil God Rise
Children are the keys of paradise.
ERIC HOFFER

Children Heaven Key One Liner
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
ERIC HOFFER

Corruption Faith Power
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 the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.
ERIC HOFFER

Age Busy Learning Ourselves Teaching Time Young
Nowhere at present is there such a measureless loathing of their country by educated people as in America.
ERIC HOFFER

Country Education Nation Present
The trouble is not chiefly that our universities are unfit for students but that many present-day students are unfit for universities.
ERIC HOFFER

Change Children Education Student Trouble
Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.
ERIC HOFFER

Change Deep Poison Truth Yourself
To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
ERIC HOFFER

Be Yourself Different Improvement Philosophy Transformation Wisdom
Death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow.
ERIC HOFFER

Death Deep Future Terrorism

The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.

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The beginning of thought is in disagreement – not only with others but also with ourselves.

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Popular Authors

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