In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced with vehemence and extremism, for we have to convince ourselves that what we took as second choice is the best there ever was. Thus blind faith is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves; insatiable desire a substitute for hope; accumulation a substitute for growth; fervent hustling a substitute for purposeful action; and pride a substitute for an unattainable self-respect.
Eric Hoffer
Related Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves. ERIC HOFFER Practice is a substitute for talent; however, there is no substitute for practice. REBEKAH CYPHERS You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense o... MITCH ALBOM Propriety is a poor substitute for desire. MARTY RUBIN Nationalist pride, like other variants of pride, can be a substitute for self-respect. ERIC HOFFER The sole substitute for an experience we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature. ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN The error of youth is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for experience, while the error o... OSCAR WILDE The error of youth is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for experience, while the error o... LYMAN BRYSON It was said that if you duped death, if you kept someone alive who should have died, then you might ... ERIK BUNDY There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience ... CESAR CHAVEZ There is no substitute for books in the life of a child. MARY ELLEN CHASE The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literatur... ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN (All the grief she had suffered over her lifetime had moulded her face into a mask of eternal sadnes... JEAN SASSON Reading is no substitute for action. COLLEEN WAINWRIGHT If we wish to substitute for war the settlement of disputes by justice, we must first substitute for... ALFRED HERMANN FRIED The one and only substitute for experience which we have not ourselves had is art, literature ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. MARY PETTIBONE POOLE Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit. OSCAR WILDE Imagination is a poor substitute for experience. HAVELOCK ELLIS Conviction is not a substitute for reason. CHRIS W. MORRIS (CHRISTOPHER WILLIAM MORRIS) Indifference is an excellent substitute for patience. MASON COOLEY In this loveless everyday life eroticism is a substitute for love. HENRI LEFEBVRE The best substitute for experience is being sixteen. RAYMOND DUNCAN But your book is wrong, Mrs. Strunk, says George, when it tells you that Jim is the substitute I fou... CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery. REINHOLD NIEBUHR Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering. CARL JUNG Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent. STEVE MARTIN Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering. CARL GUSTAV JUNG Humility is no substitute for a good personality. FRAN LEBOWITZ Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent. STEVE MARTIN There is no substitute for victory. GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR There is no substitute for victory. DOUGLAS MACARTHUR There is really no substitute for a well thought out and perfectly executed plan of action. STEVEN REDHEAD For people who cannot get to church for various reasons, this is a great option. But it will always ... CRAIG DETWEILER Good government is no substitute for self-government MAHATMA GANDHI Good government is no substitute for self-government. MAHATMA GANDHI The breast-feeding community is very upset. Basically, they are telling us to use an artificial subs... KATY LEBBING In war there is no substitute for victory. GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. JEF MALLETT A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought. WARREN BUFFETT A public opinion poll is no substitute for thought. WARREN BUFFETT Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth. AESOP Building up arms is not a substitute for diplomacy. SAMUEL PISAR Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth. UNKNOWN Work is a substitute "religious" experience for many workaholics. MARY DALY Work is a substitute religious experience for many workaholics. MARY DALY The icon of the Bible as God's textbook for the world is as bankrupt as the idea that it stands for,... TIMOTHY BEAL To define a thing is to substitute the definition for the thing itself. GEORGES BRAQUE Impatience is a poor substitute for a well-considered plan. DAVID EDDINGS Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief. OSCAR WILDE Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. LEONARD RAVENHILL There is no substitute for hard work. THOMAS A. EDISON There is no substitute for hard work. THOMAS ALVA EDISON There is really no substitute for work SUNDAY ADELAJA Charity isn't a good substitute for justice JONATHAN KOZOL The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it. ANTHONY BURGESS A book is a good substitute for a man. Fiction, preferably KAMALA SURAIYYA DAS ...passionate intensity may serve as a substitute for confidence. ERIC HOFFER Compassion is no substitute for justice. RUSH LIMBAUGH Education is no substitute for intelligence. FRANK HERBERT We must substitute courage for caution. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Prophecy, however honest, is generally a poor substitute for experience. BENJAMIN CARDOZO Cynicism is the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence. RUSSELL LYNES Cynicism is the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence. J. RUSSEL LYNES Contentment is the only one substitute for happiness. KISHORE BANSAL Words here are no substitute for action in the region, ... encourages extremism and diverts attentio... MADELEINE ALBRIGHT The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions. JOHN RUSKIN Sometimes attaining the deepest familiarity with a question is our best substitute for actually havi... BRIAN GREENE Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing. WALT KELLY Things have always operated with somewhat of a shortage. We could always use more qualified substitu... PAUL ALDERETE Things have always operated with somewhat of a shortage. We could always use more qualified substitu... SUPERINTENDENT PAUL ALDERETE There is no substitute for the strength that blesses a couple when they work together. ELIZABETH GEORGE Organization can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgment. LOUIS D. BRANDEIS Organisation can never be a substitute for initiative and for judgement. LOUIS D. BRANDEIS There is no substitute for face-to-face reporting and research. THOMAS FRIEDMAN The simple truth is that technology is still a poor substitute for human interaction. ROBERT G. THOMPSON Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play. J.R. RIM The creative conquest of space will serve as a wonderful substitute for war. JAMES S. MCDONNELL The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute f... ANDREW BROWN She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit. WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Even if dogma has a purpose, it can never function as a substitute for faith, only as a dry aspect o... NATHAN LOPES CARDOZO Furious activity is no substitute for understanding. H H WILLIAMS Charity is no substitute for justice withheld. SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO Charity is no substitute for justice withheld. SAINT AUGUSTINE Furious activity is no substitute for understanding. H. H. WILLIAMS They are not a substitute for knowing how to swim. LAURA HOWE we shouldn't substitute air power for cooperation. ALAN KEYES Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver. AMBROSE BIERCE I have always thought of sophistication as rather a feeble substitute for decadence. CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes. UNKNOWN Seeing unhappiness in the marriage of friends, I was content to have chosen music and laughter as a ... ELSA MAXWELL If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it. JAMES GARFIELD If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it. JAMES A. GARFIELD What we find to love or to hate comes to us as a substitute for something else. PAULA MARANTZ COHEN Every schoolteacher will tell you that there is no substitute for engaged parents in the education o... JAMES LANKFORD Books and school are great for learning but there is no substitute for life and living to provide a ... KEN POIROT
More Eric Hoffer
Children are the keys of paradise. ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature. ERIC HOFFER Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and ... ERIC HOFFER The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future. ERIC HOFFER It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to le... ERIC HOFFER Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us... ERIC HOFFER Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength. ERIC HOFFER The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves. ERIC HOFFER We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire. ERIC HOFFER We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about. 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ERIC HOFFER To make of human affairs a coherent, precise, predictable whole one must ignore or suppress man as h... ERIC HOFFER The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to ... ERIC HOFFER There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail. ERIC HOFFER The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altoge... ERIC HOFFER Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. ERIC HOFFER Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses ... ERIC HOFFER We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are ... ERIC HOFFER Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-eviden... ERIC HOFFER The chemistry of dissatisfaction is as the chemistry of some marvelously potent tar. In it are the b... ERIC HOFFER The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do un... ERIC HOFFER Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ERIC HOFFER Man is eminently a storyteller. His search for a purpose, a cause, an ideal, a mission and the like ... ERIC HOFFER Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing... ERIC HOFFER Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. ERIC HOFFER What greater reassurance can the weak have than that they are like anyone else? ERIC HOFFER Intolerance is the Do Not Touch sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having o... ERIC HOFFER It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is ... ERIC HOFFER It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer fr... ERIC HOFFER A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominate... ERIC HOFFER There is a grandeur in the uniformity of the mass. When a fashion, a dance, a song, a slogan or a jo... ERIC HOFFER It is not so much the example of others we imitate as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and ... ERIC HOFFER Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the... ERIC HOFFER The pre-human creature from which man evolved was unlike any other living thing in its malicious vic... ERIC HOFFER Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not or... ERIC HOFFER It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigran... ERIC HOFFER When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. ERIC HOFFER More significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers... ERIC HOFFER The necessary has never been man's top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the ... ERIC HOFFER When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it. ERIC HOFFER The beginning of thought is in disagreement -- not only with others but also with ourselves. ERIC HOFFER The greatest weariness comes from work not done. ERIC HOFFER It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission an... ERIC HOFFER The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop. ERIC HOFFER Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of a... ERIC HOFFER We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and con... ERIC HOFFER A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor. ERIC HOFFER There is always a chance that he who sets himself up as his brother's keeper will end up by being hi... ERIC HOFFER All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action... ERIC HOFFER We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails. ERIC HOFFER Though dissenters seem to question everything in sight, they are actually bundles of dusty answers a... ERIC HOFFER There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet. ERIC HOFFER Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment. The crypto-businessman is the t... ERIC HOFFER Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The ... ERIC HOFFER Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs show a tendency to reach out for the impossibl... ERIC HOFFER The main effect of a real revolution is perhaps that it sweeps away those who do not know how to wis... ERIC HOFFER We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: chan... ERIC HOFFER When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and th... ERIC HOFFER We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the ... ERIC HOFFER Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions m... ERIC HOFFER We need not only a purpose in life to give meaning to our existence but also something to give meani... ERIC HOFFER The unpredictability inherent in human affairs is due largely to the fact that the by-products of a ... ERIC HOFFER Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And w... ERIC HOFFER To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of... ERIC HOFFER Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners. ERIC HOFFER The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity than to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem e... ERIC HOFFER Retribution often means that we eventually do to ourselves what we have done unto others. ERIC HOFFER Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that ... ERIC HOFFER We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire cr... ERIC HOFFER Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want ... ERIC HOFFER Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to ... ERIC HOFFER With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the ... ERIC HOFFER A man by himself is in bad company. ERIC HOFFER Social improvement is attained more readily by a concern with the quality of results than with the p... ERIC HOFFER Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. ERIC HOFFER It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable. ERIC HOFFER We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us. ERIC HOFFER We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many i... ERIC HOFFER A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prom... ERIC HOFFER The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares no... ERIC HOFFER The nature of society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow-by th... ERIC HOFFER It is a sign of a creeping inner death when we no longer can praise the living. ERIC HOFFER There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a... ERIC HOFFER Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. ERIC HOFFER Wise living consists perhaps less in acquiring good habits than in acquiring as few habits as possib... ERIC HOFFER Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling o... ERIC HOFFER Action is at bottom a swinging and flailing of the arms to regain one's balance and keep afloat. ERIC HOFFER People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. ERIC HOFFER Whenever you trace the origin of a skill or practices which played a crucial role in the ascent of m... ERIC HOFFER It is not actual suffering but the taste of better things which excites people to revolt. ERIC HOFFER In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equippe... ERIC HOFFER The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitaria... ERIC HOFFER Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength ERIC HOFFER The great crimes of the twentieth century were committed not by money-grubbing capitalists but by d... ERIC HOFFER The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity. ERIC HOFFER It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living. ERIC HOFFER One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of... ERIC HOFFER There is probably an element of malice in our readiness to overestimate people - we are, as it were,... ERIC HOFFER Our great weariness comes from work not done. ERIC HOFFER It is remarkable by how much a pinch of malice enhances the penetrating power of an idea or an opi... ERIC HOFFER There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it ERIC HOFFER It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music. ERIC HOFFER To spell out the obvious is often to call it in question. ERIC HOFFER The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the ... ERIC HOFFER The game of History is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of thr majority in th... ERIC HOFFER Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that ... ERIC HOFFER You dehumanize a man as much by returning him to nature - by making him one with rocks, vegetation, ... ERIC HOFFER Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And w... ERIC HOFFER Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragemen... ERIC HOFFER The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in w... ERIC HOFFER To grow old is to grow common. Old age equalizes - we are aware that what is happening to us has hap... ERIC HOFFER It is easier to love humanity as a whole that to love one's neighbor. ERIC HOFFER However much we talk of the inexorable laws governing the life of individuals and of societies, we r... ERIC HOFFER One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ... ERIC HOFFER Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. ERIC HOFFER