WIST

A just society must strive with all its might to right wrongs even if righting wrongs is a highly perilous undertaking. But if it is to survive, a just society must be strong and resolute enough to deal swiftly and relentlessly with those who would mistake its good will for weakness.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
First Things, Last Things, ch. 8 “Thoughts on the Present” (1971)

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

It is probably true that business corrupts everything it touches. It corrupts politics, sports, literature, art, labor unions and so on. But business also corrupts and undermines monolithic totalitarianism. Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

Retribution often means that we eventually do to ourselves what we have done unto others.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a readiness to attempt the impossible, a bias for simple solutions — to cut the knot rather than unravel it, the viewing of compromise as surrender. Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence, absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” The New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” The New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” The New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)

Intolerance is the “Do Not Disturb” sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having our hair ruffled, but we will not tolerate any familiarity with the toupee that covers our baldness.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)

No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our short-comings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)

We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)

When cowardice becomes a fashion its adherents are without number, and it masquerades as forbearance, reasonableness and whatnot.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
First Things, Last Things, ch. 8 “Thoughts on the Present” (1971)

A dissenter is to the absoluteness of power what an exception is to the validity of a formulated scientific rule — both must be dealt with and somehow eliminated.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Ordeal of Change, 15.4 (1964)

To the excessively fearful the chief characteristic of power is its arbitrariness. Man had to gain enormously in confidence before he could conceive an all-powerful God who obeys his own laws.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Reflections on the Human Condition, Sec. 163 (1973)

Nature has no compassion. Nature accepts no excuses and the only punishment it knows is death.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Reflections on the Human Condition, Sec. 36 (1973)

We take for granted the need to escape the self. Yet the self can also be a refuge. In totalitarian countries the great hunger is for private life. Absorption in the minutiae of an individual existence is the only refuge from the apocalyptic madhouse staged by maniacal saviors of humanity.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Reflections on the Human Condition, Sec. 55 (1973)

Our greatest weariness comes from work not done.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Reflections on the Human Condition, Section 178 (1973)

Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Reflections on the Human Condition, Section 50 (1973)

The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor. There may even be a certain antagonism between love of humanity and love of neighbor; a low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 11 “Brotherhood” (1963)

The corruption inherent in absolute power derives from the fact that such power is never free from the tendency to turn man into a thing, and press him back into the matrix of nature from which he has risen. For the impulse of power is to turn every variable into a constant, and give to commands the inexorableness and relentlessness of laws of nature. Hence absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 15 “The Unnaturalness of Human Nature” (1963)

It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression. St. Vincent De Paul cautioned his disciples to deport themselves so that the poor “will forgive them the bread you give them.”

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 2 “The Awakening of Asia” (1963)
This passage uses phrases from his earlier work The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 4 (1964)

Discontent is at the root of the creative process.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 6 (1963)

When the intellectual comes into his own, he becomes a pillar of stability and finds all kinds of lofty reasons for siding with the strong against the weak.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 6 (1964)

When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms, Section 83 (1955)

Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms, #241 (1954)

Good judgment in our dealings with others consists not in seeing through deceptions and evil intentions but in being able to waken the decency dormant in every person.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms, 141 (1954)