How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the stark reality that not many people are deeply missed after they pass away, affecting our view of the world.
Eric Hoffer's quote reflects on the superficiality of many relationships and the impact of death on our emotional state. It suggests that for most people, the absence of others does not significantly alter our lives or diminish our enjoyment, prompting a reflection on the depth and authenticity of our connections with those around us.
In practice
During a memorial service to reflect on the impact of a loved one's passing.
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.
DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another.
What we call real estate - the solid ground to build a house on - is the broad foundation on which nearly all the guilt of this world rests.
We are called to live our baptism every day, as new creatures, clothed in Christ.
The human mind is impelled to action, or held in rest by some power, over which the mind itself has no control.
Everyone - pantheist, atheist, skeptic, polytheist - has to answer these questions: 'Where did I come from? What is life's meaning? How do I define right from wrong and what happens to me when I die?' Those are the fulcrum points of our existence.
The future is always present, as a promise, a lure and a temptation.
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