Eric Hoffer: Use

Section 139
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Context: Compassion is probably the only antitoxin of the soul. Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. One would rather see the world run by men who set their hearts on toys but are accessible to pity, than by men animated by lofty ideals whose dedication makes them ruthless. In the chemistry of man's soul, almost all noble attributes — courage, honor, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, etc. — can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.

Source: The Ordeal of Change (1963), Ch. 13: "Scribe, Writer, and Rebel"
Context: It has been often stated that a social order is likely to be stable so long as it gives scope to talent. Actually, it is the ability to give scope to the untalented that is most vital in maintaining social stability. For not only are the untalented more numerous but, since they cannot transmute their grievances into a creative effort, their disaffection will be more pronounced and explosive. Thus the most troublesome problem which confronts social engineering is how to provide for the untalented and, what is equally important, how to provide against them. For there is a tendency in the untalented to divert their energies from their own development into the management, manipulation, and probably frustration of others. They want to police, instruct, guide, and meddle. In an adequate social order, the untalented should be able to acquire a sense of usefulness and of growth without interfering with the development of talent around them. This requires, first, an abundance of opportunities for purposeful action and self advancement. Secondly, a wide diffusion of technical and social skills so that people will be able to work and manage their affairs with a minimum of tutelage. The scribe mentality is best neutralized by canalizing energies into purposeful and useful pursuits, and by raising the cultural level of the whole population so as to blur the dividing line between the educated and the uneducated. If such an arrangement lacks provisions for the encouragement of the talented it yet has the merit of not interfering with them.

Journal entry (28 March 1959)
Working and Thinking on the Waterfront (1969)
Context: The significant point is that people unfit for freedom — who cannot do much with it — are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have-not" type of self. If Hitler had had the talents and the temperament of a genuine artist, if Stalin had had the capacity to become a first-rate theoretician, if Napoleon had had the makings of a great poet or philosopher they would hardly have developed the all-consuming lust for absolute power.
Freedom gives us a chance to realize our human and individual uniqueness. Absolute power can also bestow uniqueness: to have absolute power is to have the power to reduce all the people around us to puppets, robots, toys, or animals, and be the only man in sight. Absolute power achieves uniqueness by dehumanizing others.
To sum up: Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.

Section 222
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

Entry (1960)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)

Entry (1956)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)

Section 113 http://books.google.com/books?id=msOwAAAAIAAJ&q=%22The+pleasure+we+derive+from+doing+favors+is+partly+in+the+feeling+it+gives+us+that+we+are+not+altogether+worthless%22&pg=PA72#v=onepage
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

Section 140
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

Source: Reflections on the Human Condition (1973), p. 20

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

Section 59
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

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

"Money" p. 37
In Our Time (1976)

Section 113, Ch. 17 The Practical Men of Action
The True Believer (1951), Part Four: Beginning and End

Section 33
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)

Section 69
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice

Israel's Peculiar Position (1968)

Entry (1951)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)