When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.
Interpretation
This quote highlights how cowardice can become normalized and accepted in society, attracting both the weak and those who appear strong.
Eric Hoffer's quote suggests that when society condones or glamorizes cowardice, it loses its stigma, leading many individuals, regardless of their inherent strength or weakness, to adopt such behavior. This normalization can create an environment where bravery is undervalued, and the fear of taking risks or standing up for one's beliefs becomes commonplace.
In practice
In a discussion about societal values, one might quote Hoffer to illustrate how cultural trends can influence behavior.
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.
It comes to this then: there always have been people like me and always will be, and generally they have been persecuted.
Mankind owns four things that are no good at sea: rudder, anchor, oars and the fear of going down.
All I know is that after 10 years of being sober, with huge support to express my pain and anger and shadow, the grief and tears didnβt wash me away. They gave me my life back! They cleansed me, baptized me, hydrated the earth at my feet. They brought me home, to me, to the truth of me.
As far as this business of solitary confinement goes, the most important thing for survival is communication with someone, even if it's only a wave or a wink, a tap on the wall, or to have a guy put his thumb up. It makes all the difference.
There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail
It takes a lot more courage to let something go than it does to hang on to it, trying to make it better. Letting go doesn't mean ignoring a situation. Letting go means accepting what is, exactly as it is, without fear, resistance, or a struggle for control.
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