Quote

The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse.

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
Impulse
Strengthens
Likely
Converting
Develop
Legitimacy
Easily
Fanatics
Whose
Challenged
Faith
Creed
Others
Creeds
Proselytizing
Strongest
Fanatic

More quotes by Eric Hoffer

Image
A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding.
Eric Hoffer
Image
The sense of inferiority inherent in the act of imitation breeds resentment. The impulse of the imitators is to overcome the model they imitate.
Eric Hoffer
Image
All leaders strive to turn their followers into children.
Eric Hoffer
Image
Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.
Eric Hoffer
Image
We usually see only the things we are looking for- so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.
Eric Hoffer
Image
It is easier to hate an enemy with much good in him than one who is all bad. We cannot hate those we despise.
Eric Hoffer
Image
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
Eric Hoffer
Image
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Eric Hoffer
Image
A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion.
Eric Hoffer
Image
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
Eric Hoffer
Image
When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
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
It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.
Eric Hoffer
Image
However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
Eric Hoffer
Image
The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious.
Eric Hoffer
Image
A good sentence is a key . It unlocks the mind of the reader.
Eric Hoffer
Image
...in the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything.
Eric Hoffer
Image
The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.
Eric Hoffer
Image
To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with magnanimity is to blunt our hatred for him.
Eric Hoffer
Image
There is a time when the word eventually has the soothing effect of a promise, and a time when the word evokes in us bitterness and scorn.
Eric Hoffer