Frasi di Eric Hoffer

pagina 8

“Puoi scoprire ciò che più teme il tuo nemico osservando i mezzi di cui si serve per spaventarti.”

“La coscienza di un'anima è proporzionata al numero di verità che può sopportare.”

“Non c'è solitudine più grande della solitudine di un fallito. Il fallito è un estraneo nella sua stessa casa.”

“Per conoscere la religione di una persona non dobbiamo ascoltare la fede che dice di professare, ma dobbiamo trovare il suo tipo di intolleranza.”

“La cosa notevole è che noi davvero amiamo il nostro prossimo come noi stessi: noi facciamo agli altri quello che vorremmo fosse fatto a noi stessi. Noi odiamo gli altri quando odiamo noi stessi. Noi siamo tolleranti verso gli altri quando tolleriamo noi stessi. Noi perdoniamo gli altri quando noi perdoniamo noi stessi. Noi siamo proni a sacrificare gli altri quando siamo pronti a sacrificare noi stessi.”

“Noi non ci sentiamo veramente grati nei confronti di quelle persone che fanno realizzare i nostri sogni; esse rovinano i nostri sogni.”

“Quando le persone sono libere di fare a modo loro, in genere si mettono ad imitarsi a vicenda.”

“La maleducazione è un'imitazione di forza dell'uomo debole.”

“A volte sentiamo la perdita di un pregiudizio come perdita di vigore.”

“Anche l'imprevedibilità può diventare monotona.”

“Aver subito un'ingiustizia è avere uno scopo nella vita.”

“Gli uomini si stancano tanto perché non fanno le cose che vogliono fare quanto perché fanno le cose che non vogliono fare.”

“I fatti sono controrivoluzionari.”

“L'individuo che deve giustificare la propria esistenza attraverso i propri sforzi è eternamente schiavo di se stesso.”

“L'inizio del pensiero è il disaccordo – non solo con gli altri ma anche con noi stessi.”

“La fede assoluta corrompe in modo altrettanto assoluto quanto il potere assoluto.”

“La giovinezza in se stessa è un talento non duraturo.”

“La dissipazione è una forma di autosacrificio.”

“Quando ci sono le capacità tecniche necessarie a smuovere le montagne, non c'è bisogno della fede che smuove le montagne.”

“Quando crediamo di possedere l'unica verità, è probabile che siamo indifferenti alle normali verità quotidiane.”

“Quando si automatizza un'industria la si rende più moderna; ma quando si tenta di farlo con la vita, la si rende primitiva.”

“Siamo più predisposti a generalizzare il cattivo del buono. Sostenendo che il cattivo è più potente e contagioso.”

“Siamo soliti pensare che una rivoluzione sia causa di profondi cambiamenti. In realtà accade proprio il contrario: il cambiamento prepara gli animi alla rivoluzione.”

“Un castigo spesso implica che facciamo a noi stessi quello che abbiamo fatto ad altri.”

“Un uomo in grado di trasformare gli ostacoli in opportunità dimostra di possedere una profonda umanità.”

“Mi aggrappo ai miei pregiudizi, sono i testicoli della mia mente.”

“The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.”

“The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real "have nots" are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.”

“A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.”

“With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.”

“When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.”

“Add a few drops of venom to a half truth and you have an absolute truth.”

“To overestimate the originality of one's thoughts is perhaps a less serious defect than being unaware of their newness. There is a more pronounced lack of sensitivity in underestimating (ourselves and others) than in overestimating.”

“We can never have enough of that which we really do not want, and… we run fastest and farthest from ourselves.”

“J. B. S. Haldane counts fanaticism among the only four really important inventions made between 3000 B. C and 1400 A. D. It was a Judaic-Christian invention. And it is strange to think that in receiving this malady of the soul the world also received a miraculous instrument for raising societies and nations from the dead—an instrument of resurrection.”

“We usually see only the things we are looking for — so much so that we sometimes see them where they are not.”

“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.”

“A war is not won if the defeated enemy has not been turned into a friend.”

“There is in even the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that what we call extreme self-seeking is actually self-renunciation. The miser, health addict, glory chaser and their like are not far behind the selfless in the exercise of self-sacrifice.”

“Thinking with me is like looking for a person whose address I don't know. I stand on a street corner all day long waiting for him to pass by. Certainly there are more efficient ways of locating a person whose address you don't know. But if you have a whole lifetime to wait and enjoy watching things go by, then waiting on street corners is as good a method as any. If you don't find the person you are looking for, you might meet someone else.”

“One is not quite certain that creativeness in the arts, literature, and science functions best in an environment of absolute freedom. Chances are that a relatively mild tyranny stimulates creativeness.”

“The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.”

“A just society must strive with all its might to right wrongs even if righting wrongs is a highly perilous undertaking. But if it is to survive, a just society must be strong and resolute enough to deal swiftly and relentlessly with those who would mistake its good will for weakness.”

“When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us to live for. All forms of dedication, devotion, loyalty and self-surrender are in essence a desperate clinging to something which might give worth and meaning to our futile, spoiled lives.”

“No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart.”

“I have written a number of good sentences. I have kept free of delusions. I know I am going to die soon.”

“One would like to see mankind spend the balance of the century in a total effort to clean up and groom the surface of the globe — wipe out the jungles, turn deserts and swamps into arable land, terrace barren mountains, regulate rivers, eradicate all pests, control the weather, and make the whole land mass a fit habitation for Man. The globe should be our and not nature's home, and we no longer nature's guests.”

“Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.”

“Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to support and uphold something that can never stand on its own… Whether it our own meaningless self we are upholding, or some doctrine devoid of evidence, we can do it only in a frenzy of faith.”

“That which is unique and worthwhile in us makes itself felt only in flashes. If we do not know how to catch and savor the flashes we are without growth and exhilaration.”

“The elites are finally catching up with us. We can hear the swish of leather as saddles are heaved on our backs. The intellectuals and the young, booted and spurred, feel themselves born to ride us.”

“To the intellectual the struggle for freedom is more vital than the actuality of a free society. He would rather "work, fight, talk, for liberty than have it."”

“The central task of education is to implant a will and a facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.”

“It has been my experience that there is no substitute for time where thinking is concerned. Why is it so? The answer seems to be that in many cases to think means to be able to allow the mind to stray from the task at hand. The mind must be able to be "elsewhere." This needs time.”

“Practically all writers and artists are aware of their destiny and see themselves as actors in a fateful drama. With me, nothing is momentous: obscure youth, glorious old age, fateful coincidences — nothing really matters. I have written a number of good sentences. I have kept free of delusions. I know I am going to die soon.”