Eric Hoffer: Other

Eric Hoffer was American philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on other.

Eric Hoffer: 480 quotes14 likes

“It's disconcerting to realize that businessmen, generals, soldiers, men of action are less corrupted by power than intellectuals… You take a conventional man of action, and he's satisfied if you obey. But not the intellectual. He doesn't want you just to obey. He wants you to get down on your knees and praise the one who makes you love what you hate and hate what you love. In other words, whenever the intellectuals are in power, there's soul-raping going on.”

Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO1HqWUMxbs#t=2m23s with Eric Sevareid (1967)

“The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real "have nots" are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.”

Section 115
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

“With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.”

Section 211
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

“To overestimate the originality of one's thoughts is perhaps a less serious defect than being unaware of their newness. There is a more pronounced lack of sensitivity in underestimating (ourselves and others) than in overestimating.”

Entry (1957)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)