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?
Interpretation
The quote reflects on our deep-seated beliefs and attachments to various aspects of identity and community as a way to cope with the notion of existential annihilation.
Eric Hoffer's quote delves into the human tendency to cling to faith in various entities such as family, nation, or religion as a means of creating meaning in a world where the self is ultimately fleeting. This faith serves as a psychological refuge against the fear of oblivion by allowing individuals to envision their ties and identities as part of something eternal and larger than themselves.
In practice
In a speech about community values, one might say, 'As Eric Hoffer expressed, our faith in humanity is what allows us to believe in a better future.'
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.
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 is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
Sometimes a disappearance can be more haunting than an apparition.
Heaven is author of the virtue that is in me
The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.
When the king asked him what he meant by infesting the sea, the pirate defiantly replied: _x000D_ _x000D_ The same as you do when you infest the whole world;_x000D_ _x000D_ but because I do it with a little ship I am called a robber,_x000D_ _x000D_ and because you do it with a great fleet, you are an emperor.
We treat desire as a problem to be solved, address what desire is for and focus on that something and how to acquire it rather than on the nature and the sensation of desire, though often it is the desire between us and the object of desire that fills the space in between with the blue of longing.
There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.
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