Eric Hoffer book The True Believer
Section 9
The True Believer (1951), Part One: The Appeal of Mass Movements
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Essays in Idleness (1967 Columbia University Press, Trns: Donald Keene)
Eric Hoffer book The True Believer
Section 9
The True Believer (1951), Part One: The Appeal of Mass Movements
“The surest sign that a man has a genuine taste of his own is that he is uncertain of it.”
W. H. Auden book The Dyer's Hand
"Reading", p. 6
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
“I'm a man of simple tastes. I'm always satisfied with the best.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Variant: I have simple tastes. I am always satisfied with the best
“I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own tastes.”
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor
Quote by Harriet & Sidney Janis in 'Marchel Duchamp: Anti-Artist' in View magazine 3/21/45; reprinted in Robert Motherwell, Dada Painters and Poets (1951)
1921 - 1950
Variant: I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright
Context: A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.
On "Sir Roger", in The Spectator No. 122 (20 July 1711).
Arthur Desmond (1859–1929) New Zealnd writer
Rival Caesars (1903)
Thomas Hodgskin (1787–1869) British writer
Source: Travels in the North of Germany (1820), p. 86, Vol. 2