“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 Hoffer240
American philosopher 1898–1983Related quotes
“It is not by his faults, but by his excellences, that we measure a great man.”
George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) British philosopher
On Actors and the Art of Acting (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1875) p. 13
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
1880s, Reminiscences (1881)
“But he would only be allowed it; he could not claim it as his own.”
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854–1939) American journalist and anarchist
¶ 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.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
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.
David Hume book An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
§ 6.9 : Of Qualities Useful to Ourselves, Pt. 1
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751)
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English writer
Referring to Francis Bacon
The Works of Ben Jonson, Second Folio (1640), Timber: or Discoveries
Arthur Desmond (1859–1929) New Zealnd writer
Rival Caesars (1903)
Nasir Khusraw (1004–1088) Persian poet and philosopher
translated by Edward. G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia, 1909, p.268