The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.
Eric HofferIt is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations -- past and present -- are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hungers, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged through the millenia.
Eric HofferNaivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Eric HofferIt is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both in the market place and on the battlefield men who set their hearts on toys have often displayed unequal initiative and drive. And one must be ignorant of the creative process to look for a close correspondence between motive and achievement in the world of thought and imagination.
Eric Hoffer