It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
Interpretation
Unfulfilled desires drive a nation toward a greater purpose and vision.
This quote by Eric Hoffer suggests that the recognition of unmet needs and wants within a society inspires a collective sense of purpose and destiny. It emphasizes that dissatisfaction can be a powerful motivator for national ambition and unity, as people strive to fulfill these desires collectively.
In practice
In a political speech discussing national goals, you can use this quote to emphasize the importance of aspirations.
Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple.
If you stand for something, you will always find some people for you and some people against you. If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against you, and nobody for you.
We betray our modern arrogance and forget the place of mystery in God's dealing with us.
Global markets must be balanced by global values such as respect for human rights and international law, democracy, security and sustainable economic and environmental development.
Some people, and I am one of them, hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm.
After all Death is a Symbol that there was Life.
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