The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others.
Eric Hoffer
Related
Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. -Eric Hoffer.
ERIC HOFFER The deeper problems connected with advertising come less from the unscrupulousness of our 'deceivers...
DANIEL J. BOORSTIN Our works, whatever they may be, derive from our incapacity to kill or to kill ourselves.
EMILE M. CIORAN If we lived more from the person we would like ourselves to
be and less from the "ideal" that others...
ELIZABETH ALRAUNE When we teach ourselves and our children discipline, we are teaching them and ourselves how to suffe...
M. SCOTT PECK When we are in competition with ourselves, and match our todays against our yesterdays, we derive en...
ERIC HOFFER The pleasure or the benefit that the object of our deed derives from it is every now and then greate...
MOKOKOMA MOKHONOANA We who are like senseless children shrink from suffering, but love its causes. We hurt ourselves; ou...
ŚāNTIDEVA Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through yo...
GERMANY KENT The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.
AESOP Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ...
GERMANY KENT It is useless to try to make peace with ourselves by being pleased with everything we have done. In ...
THOMAS MERTON In life, we must not look to make ourselves happy, but instead, we must strive to love others and ou...
PAUL ACQUASANTA Toxic people defy logic. Some are blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on those ...
TRAVIS BRADBERRY Even with the desire for a better life, we can be reluctant to do the work of boundaries because it ...
HENRY CLOUD The pleasure we derive from doing favors is partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altoge...
ERIC HOFFER The violence done us by others is often less painful than that which we do to ourselves
FRANçOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselve...
OSCAR ARIAS SANCHEZ We derive our vitality from our store of madness.
E. M. CIORAN Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977 Continued from yesterday: He, then, whos...
C. HAROLD DODD The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do un...
ERIC HOFFER The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbors as ourselves: we do unto others as we do u...
ERIC HOFFER By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our
honor becomes greater ...
STEPHEN R. COVEY We should strive to be more like Jesus and less like ourselves.
JAIME LYNNE DILLON The pleasure we derive from doing favors in partly in the feeling it gives us that we are not altoge...
ERIC HOFFER Being socially retarded is like being mentally retarded, it arouses in others disgust and pity and t...
MARGARET ATWOOD Love can be simply stated to be the desire of the human being to integrate oneself with other selves...
AWDHESH SINGH The idea that one might derive satisfaction from his or her successful work, because that work is in...
NIKLAUS WIRTH We take greater pains to persuade others we are happy than in trying to think so ourselves.
CONFUCIUS Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is ... opening a door that we may derive instruc...
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Does our ferocity not derive from the fact that our instincts are all too interested in other people...
E. M. CIORAN When we hide our failings from others, we seek to hide them from ourselves, and it is in the latter ...
PIERRE NICOLE Satisfaction is the death of desire.
IMRAN NAZIR The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we d...
GEORGE MULLER The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we d...
GEORGE MULLER We are far from perfect but willing to be different.
CRAIG GROESCHEL Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is ou...
MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA Whatever we treasure for ourselves separates us from others; our possessions are our limitations.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE We can make others feel deep pleasure or satisfaction as a result of our own quality experiences, bu...
GENESIS MONARENG Deliver me, O Jesus, From the desire of being loved, From the desire of being extolled, From the des...
MOTHER TERESA Basic Principles:
1. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creati...
JULIA CAMERON We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for though others may free the body, none ...
MARCUS GARVEY We cannot have it all. We must live with our limitations. We cannot hold onto life with higher estee...
KILROY J. OLDSTER The pleasure we derive from the representation of the present is due, not only to the beauty it can ...
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE What we desire, more than a season or weather, is the comfort
Of being strangers, at least to o...
MARK STRAND When we think little of ourselves, we do little with ourselves. We must think bigger of ourselves to...
BRANDON A. TREAN We think we are being interesting to others when we are being interesting to ourselves.
JACK GARDNER It is a most certain truth, that the richer we see ourselves to be, confessing at the same time our ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA Eric understands that the world is rarely the way it is supposed to be. And he knows that, given the...
JODI PICOULT The reason as to why we are attracted to our opposites is because they are our salvation from the bu...
KAMAND KOJOURI We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are ...
ERIC HOFFER A good manager finds satisfaction in helping others be productive, not being the most productive per...
PAUL GLEN The more we give, the more we reap the benefits of feeling good in helping others. We are all capabl...
ANGIE KARAN I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire c...
DALAI LAMA Most of us, I believe, admire strength. It's something we tend to respect in others, desire for ours...
FRED ROGERS There is no greater insight into the future than recognizing...when we save our children, we save ou...
MARGARET MEAD Jesus was not content to derive his ethics from the scriptures of his upbringing. He explicitly depa...
RICHARD DAWKINS People who do not love themselves can adore others, because adoration is making someone else big and...
ANDREW MATTHEWS People who do not love themselves can adore others, because adoration is making someone else big and...
ANDREW MATTHEWS Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622 We must not be unjust and req...
FRANCOIS DE SALES Our actions are guaranteed to affect others. Because we are not alone in this world, much of our lea...
TAE YUN KIM Transcending anger happens when we are able to commit to something greater than ourselves. And, iron...
RHODA BARUCH We're very much in an evolutionary stage as people now. The globalization of our society is just ama...
JOHN NAISBITT I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater ...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater...
THOMAS JEFFERSON Maybe it's less about what we can do than about how much we can love. More about walking with others...
CINDEE SNIDER RE The observation of others is coloured by our inability to observe ourselves impartially. We can neve...
A. R. ORAGE We are all driven by two desires: the desire for others to notice we exist, and the desire for someo...
NICHOLAS A. FERRONI Life can be tough & make you wanna give up. But baby keep your head up because you got all the time ...
LILLIAN S. VILORIA The sad thing that many of us empaths don’t realize is that often our desire to heal others is a d...
MATEO SOL There were lies we told to save ourselves, and then there were lies we told to rescue others. What c...
JODI PICOULT All it takes for generosity to flow is awareness. By actively pursuing awareness and knowledge, we c...
ZOE WEIL The property of others is always more inviting than our own; and
that which we ourselves possess is...
UNKNOWN the strange ideas we derive today will one day be our celebrated truths
DAN BROWN The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves. ...
CHARLES CALEB COLTON Ever since we invented fire and the wheel, we've been demonstrating both our ability and our inh...
AUBREY DE GREY (from a prayer for inclusiveness):
O god whose face changes as we move and learn and change, wh...
BRONWYN ANGELA WHITE We discover in others what others hide from us, and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselv...
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to li...
BLAISE PASCAL To be chosen as the Beloved of God is something radically different. Instead of excluding others, it...
HENRI J.M. NOUWEN We are all here to contribute our gifts toward something greater than ourselves, and will never be c...
CHARLES EISENSTEIN Because we were treated neglectfully and abusively in our young years—when we most needed self-lov...
MAUREEN BRADY It is lack of love for ourselves that inhibits our compassion toward others. If we make friends with...
DALAI LAMA We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to eve...
FRANCIS OF ASSISI Each of us views life through a different lens. What we think is colored by the baggage we carry, an...
LAURIE BUCHANAN, PHD My definition of success is total self acceptance. We can obtain all of the material possessions we ...
FRANKI Life is over when we allow ourselves to lose our childlike curiosity and desire to experience new th...
SUMMER JEIRLES Against Hume, Kant has found a more proper ground for humility: “True humility follows unavoidably...
JEANINE GRENBERG I think we're going to be great. I don't think we can accept anything less than being great. If we a...
BRANDON MERIWEATHER We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.
JOHN F. KENNEDY Whatever we may be or not be to others, to ourselves we are always just ourselves.
MARTY RUBIN The observation of others is coloured by our inability to observe ourselves impartially. We can neve...
A. R. ORAGE We must humble ourselves before [others] so we may learn from what others have lived. It is only whe...
A.J. DARKHOLME I knew, as sure as I knew my name, that tomorrow he would send me another coat, in a big fancy box, ...
CHARLAINE HARRIS Encourage literally came from "in courage." The courage is put "into" you from outside. Our characte...
HENRY CLOUD However great the task may be, the outcome will be greater.
JASON T. SURGAUX We are very excited to be adding both Harold and Eric to our scouting staff. We feel very strongly t...
DAVE NONIS Do we secretly idolize our imagined opposites, yearning to become the role models for others we know...
JOHN WATERS Our forgiving of others will not procure forgiveness for ourselves; but our not forgiving others pro...
JOHN OWEN The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
More Eric Hoffer
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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?
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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...
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ERIC HOFFER The pre-human creature from which man evolved was unlike any other living thing in its malicious vic...
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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.
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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