A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.
Interpretation
A mass movement gains support not by promoting individual success but through appealing to the desire for self-sacrifice and collective purpose.
Eric Hoffer's quote emphasizes that the strength of a mass movement lies not in its ability to provide personal benefits to its followers, but rather in its capacity to inspire individuals to transcend their personal ambitions in favor of a greater cause. This reflects a deeper human need to contribute to something larger than oneself, revealing how true devotion to a collective ideal can be a powerful motivator.
In practice
In a speech promoting community service, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of selflessness.
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.
There are nuclear-weapons-free zones in several parts of the world already, except that they're not implemented fully, because the U.S. won't allow it.
Honesty is for the most par less profitable than dishonesty.
To be mad is to feel with excruciating intensity the sadness and joy of a time which has not arrived or has already been.
The Internet causes billions of images to appear on millions of computer monitors around the planet. From this galaxy of sight and sound will the face of Christ emerge and the voice of Christ be heard? For it is only when his face is seen and his voice heard that the world will know the glad tidings of our redemption. This is the purpose of evangelization. And this is what will make the Internet a genuinely human space, for if there is no room for Christ, there is no room for man.
People who don't see their nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are lairs and fools.
From the first day to this, sheer greed was the driving spirit of civilization.
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