Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

Eric Hoffer was an American philosopher and social critic. A conservative moderate with an atypical working-class background, Hoffer authored ten books over his career and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer (1951), was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that The Ordeal of Change (1963) was his finest work. The Eric Hoffer Book Award is an international literary prize established in his honor. The University of California, Berkeley awards an annual literary prize named jointly for Hoffer.

Quotes

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

Etiquette
The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility.
We cannot be sure that we have something to live for unless we are ready to die for it.
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

Invention
We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to evoke it in us.
The Greeks invented logic but were not fooled by it.
We have rudiments of reverence for the human body, but we consider as nothing the rape of the human mind.
The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.
All leaders strive to turn their followers into children.
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
The wise learn from the experience of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats- we know it not.
No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart.
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.
The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbors as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant of 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.
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.
Take man's most fantastic invention- God. Man invents God in the image of his longings, in the image of what he wants to be, then proceeds to imitate that image, vie with it, and strive to overcome it.
To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.