We can never really be prepared for that which is wholly new. We have to adjust ourselves, and every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. It needs subordinate self-confidence to face drastic change without inner trembling.
Interpretation
Adapting to new experiences often challenges our self-esteem and requires us to prove our worth.
This quote by Eric Hoffer emphasizes the difficulty of facing new and radical changes in life. He suggests that such changes test our self-esteem and confidence, as we must adjust and prove ourselves in situations that demand growth and transformation. Hoffer highlights that while encountering the unfamiliar can cause inner turmoil, it is through these challenges that we learn to adapt and build our confidence.
In practice
In a motivational speech discussing career changes and personal development.
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.
Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.
Emigration is no longer a solution; it's a defeat. People are risking death, drowning every day, but they're knocking on doors that are not open.
So much of growing up is an unbearable waiting. A constant longing for another time. Another season.
I hope we can all agree that, instead of continuing to subsidize yesterday's energy sources. We need to invest in tomorrow's.
Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can 'solve the climate crisis.' But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.
Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
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