1820s Gold treasure United States, 1860s
New Statesman and Society (8 February 1991).
“A few honest men are better than numbers.”
Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
“The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.”
Entry (1952)
Eric Hoffer and the Art of the Notebook (2005)
Context: This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation of what we are but with the building up of an imaginary conception of ourselves in the opinion of others. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.
Letter to Samuel Cooper (30 April 1776) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2093
Context: We cannot make Events. Our Business is wisely to improve them. There has been much to do to confirm doubting Friends & fortify the Timid. It requires time to bring honest Men to think & determine alike even in important Matters. Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason.
Source: The Economic Illusion (1984), Chapter 5, Taxes, p. 188
"As I Please," Tribune (8 December 1944)<sup> http://alexpeak.com/twr/tdoaom/</sup>
"As I Please" (1943–1947)
Context: The important thing is to discover which individuals are honest and which are not, and the usual blanket accusation merely makes this more difficult. The atmosphere of hatred in which controversy is conducted blinds people to considerations of this kind. To admit that an opponent might be both honest and intelligent is felt to be intolerable. It is more immediately satisfying to shout that he is a fool or a scoundrel, or both, than to find out what he is really like. It is this habit of mind, among other things, that has made political prediction in our time so remarkably unsuccessful.
