Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps moral integrity.
Eric HofferMen of thought seldom work well together, whereas between men of action there is usually an easy camaraderie.
Eric HofferOur sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart. For we can win a man's heart one day and lose it the next. But when we break a proud spirit we achieve something that is final and absolute.
Eric HofferLearners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Eric HofferMore significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers compose unintelligible music is that people should admire what they cannot understand; indeed, admire that which has no meaning or principle.
Eric HofferStarting out from the fact that the frustrated predominate among the early adherents of all mass movements and that they usually join of their own accord, it is assumed: 1) that frustration of itself, without any proselytizing prompting from the outside, can generate most of the peculiar characteristics of the true believer; 2) that an effective technique of conversion consists basically in the inculcation and fixation of proclivities and responses indigenous to the frustrated mind.
Eric Hoffer