As quoted in Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1988) by James Beasley Simpson; also quoted in Running on Empty: Meditations for Indispensable Women (1992) by Ellen Sue Stern, p. 235
Paraphrased variants: The most important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second disastrous.
Take your work seriously, but never yourself.
“Take your work seriously, but don't take yourself seriously”
“I am more and more convinced that taking life over-seriously is a frivolous thing.”
Entry (1952)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Context: I am more and more convinced that taking life over-seriously is a frivolous thing. There is an affected self-dramatizing in the brooding over one's prospects and destiny. The trifling attitude of an Ecclesiastes is essentially sober and serious. It is in closer touch with the so-called eternal truths than are the most penetrating metaphysical probing and the most sensitive poetic insights.
“The most important point is — and remains — not to take oneself seriously.”
Entry (1954)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Context: The most important point is — and remains — not to take oneself seriously. There is no past, and, certainly, no future. There are but a few years — ten at the most. You pass your days as best you can, doing as little harm as possible. Let the desires be few and treat expectations as weeds. You read, scribble as the spirit moves you, hear some new music, see every week the few people you are attached to. Again: guard yourself, above all, against self-dramatization, a feeling of importance, and the sprouting of expectations.
1977
The First Three Minutes (1977; second edition 1993)
Source: Plain Tales from the Hills
“To take my work seriously would be the height of folly.”
"A Letter to a Young Poet"
The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942)
“Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves.”
