In our time one has to ask children and the ignorant for news of the future. The saying in the Talmud that after the destruction of the temple prophesy we have taken from the wise and given to children and fools reflect the disarray and perplexity of a time of trouble. When things become unhinged, […]
Eric Hoffer Quotes
I remember a lot of talk and a lot of laughter. I must have talked a great deal because Martha used to say again and again, “You remember you said this, you said that… ” She remembered everything I said, and all my life I’ve had the feeling that what I think and what I […]
There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.
No totalitarian censor can approach the implacability of the censor who controls the line of communication between the outer world and our consciousness. Nothing is allowed to reach us which might weaken our confidence and lower our morale.
To believe that is we could but have 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.
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 noncapitalistic environment.
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.
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.
When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.
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.”
