WIST

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)

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)

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)

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)

Discontent is at the root of the creative process.

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

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind (1955)

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves. It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Sec. 100 (1955)

The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than of deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, sec. 13 (1955)

When people are free to do as we please, they usually imitate each other.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, sec. 3 (1955)

To believe that if we could have but this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the cause of our unhappiness is in our inadequate and blemished selves. Excessive desire is thus a means of suppressing our sense of worthlessness.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Sec. 6 (1955)

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Section 222 (1955)

Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Section 241 (1955)

Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Temper of Our Time (1967)

There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its least worthy members.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer (1951)

[F]anatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet. … [T]he reactionary and the radical have more in common than either has with the liberal or the conservative.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer (1951)

It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power — power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer (1951)
Variant found elsewhere: "I doubt if the oppressed ever fight for freedom..."

Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer Part 3, sec. 73 (1951)

The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow men.  Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 100 (1951)

We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 23 (1951)

Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience — the knowledge that our mighty deeds will come to the ears of our contemporaries or “of those who are to be.”

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 47 (1951)

To be effective a doctrine must not be understood, but has to be believed in. We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand. A doctrine that is understood is shorn of its strength.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 57 (1951)

The fanatic cannot be weaned away from his cause by an appeal to his reason or moral sense. … He cannot be convinced, but only converted.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 61 (1951)

The reactionary and the radical have more in common than either has with the liberal or the conservative.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 62 (1951)

The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned against are indeed depraved creatures, deserving every punishment, even extermination.  We cannot pity those we have wronged, nor can we be indifferent toward them.  We must hate and persecute them or else leave the door open to self-contempt.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 71 (1951)

Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have.  It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 88 (1951)

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.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part I, Sec 9 (1951)

A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part I, Sec. 10 (1951)

When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the action which follows them. It is as if ivied maidens and garlanded youths were to herald the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part I, Sec. 5, ch. 2 “The Desire For Substitutes” (1951)

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part I, Sec. 8 (1951)

Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, “to be free from freedom.” It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility?

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part II, Sec. 26 (1951)

They who clamor loudest for freedom are often the ones least likely to be happy in a free society. The frustrated, oppressed by their shortcomings, blame their failure on existing restraints. Actually, their innermost desire is for an end to the “free for all.” They want to eliminate free competition and the ruthless testing to which the individual is continually subjected in a free society.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part II, sec. 28 (1951)

The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients. The gifted propagandist brings to a boil ideas and passions already simmering in the minds of his hearers. he echoes their innermost feelings. Where opinion is not coerced, people can be made to believe only in what they already “know.”

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III (1951)

Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III, sec. 100 (1951)

Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III, sec. 65 (1951)

Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III, Sec. 69 (1951)

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III, sec. 75 (1951)

The frustrated follow a leader less because of their faith that he is leading them to a promised land than because of their immediate feeling that he is leading them away from their unwanted selves. Surrender to a leader is not a means to an end but a fulfillment. Whither they are led is of secondary importance.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, Part III, sec. 94 (1951)

You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is that you make allowances for others — that you cleanse yourself of the sin of self-righteousness.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Working and Thinking on the Waterfront (1969)

There is not an idea that cannot be expressed in 200 words. But the writer must know precisely what he wants to say. If you have nothing to say and want badly to say it, then all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Letter to Mrs. Blumberg (27 Sep 1977)