Quote

Self-esteem and self-contempt have specific odors they can be smelled.

Eric Hoffer

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Eric Hoffer
Age: 84 †
Born: 1898
Born: July 25
Died: 1983
Died: May 21
Philosopher
Psychologist
Writer
New York City
New York
Esteem
Literature
Self
Smelled
Odor
Contempt
Specific

More quotes by Eric Hoffer

Image
That which corrodes the souls of the persecuted is the monstrous inner agreement with the prevailing prejudice against them.
Eric Hoffer
Image
To find the cause of our ills in something outside ourselves, something specific that can be spotted and eliminated, is a diagnosis that cannot fail to appeal. To say that the cause of our troubles is not in us but in the Jews , and pass immediately to the extermination of the Jews, is a prescription likely to find a wide acceptance.
Eric Hoffer
Image
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
Image
Excesses are essentially gestures. It is easy to be extremely cruel, magnanimous, humble or self-sacrificing when we see ourselves as actors in a performance.
Eric Hoffer
Image
Failure in the management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for success in the management of public affairs.
Eric Hoffer
Image
We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true they ruin our dreams.
Eric Hoffer
Image
Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.
Eric Hoffer
Image
However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing.
Eric Hoffer
Image
One of the surprising privileges of intellectuals is that they are free to be scandalously asinine without harming their reputations.
Eric Hoffer
Image
Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.
Eric Hoffer
Image
We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. We need few words when we have something to say, but all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice when we have nothing to say and want desperately to say it.
Eric Hoffer
Image
The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.
Eric Hoffer
Image
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
Image
The future belongs to the learners-not the knowers.
Eric Hoffer
Image
Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.
Eric Hoffer
Image
Nothing comes easily. My work smells of sweat.
Eric Hoffer
Image
If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences.
Eric Hoffer
Image
Every era has a currency that buys souls. In some the currency is pride, in others it is hope, in still others it is a holy cause. There are of course times when hard cash will buy souls, and the remarkable thing is that such times are marked by civility, tolerance, and the smooth working of everyday life.
Eric Hoffer
Image
The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life.
Eric Hoffer
Image
There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its leastworthy members.
Eric Hoffer