“The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.”
Section 9
The True Believer (1951), Part One: The Appeal of Mass Movements
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Eric Hoffer 240
American philosopher 1898–1983Related quotes

“It is not by his faults, but by his excellences, that we measure a great man.”
On Actors and the Art of Acting (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1875) p. 13

1880s, Reminiscences (1881)

“But he would only be allowed it; he could not claim it as his own.”
¶ 13
State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherin They Differ (1888)
Context: What other applications this principle of Authority, once adopted in the economic sphere, will develop is very evident. It means the absolute control by the majority of all individual conduct. The right of such control is already admitted by the State Socialists, though they maintain that, as a matter of fact, the individual would be allowed a much larger liberty than he now enjoys. But he would only be allowed it; he could not claim it as his own. There would be no foundation of society upon a guaranteed equality of the largest possible liberty. Such liberty as might exist would exist by sufferance and could be taken away at any moment. Constitutional guarantees would be of no avail. There would be but one article in the constitution of a State Socialistic country: “The right of the majority is absolute.”

“An excellent man: he has no enemies, and none of his friends like him.”
Quoted by George Bernard Shaw in a letter to Ellen Terry, 25 September 1896.
Context: On George Bernard Shaw An excellent man: he has no enemies, and none of his friends like him.

Referring to Francis Bacon
The Works of Ben Jonson, Second Folio (1640), Timber: or Discoveries

translated by Edward. G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia, 1909, p.268