There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that intense passions can lead us to evade our true selves, resembling a fugitive escaping from reality.
Eric Hoffer's quote reflects on the nature of passion and how it can sometimes compel individuals to escape from their authentic selves. The passionate 'pursuer' is likened to a fugitive, indicating that when one becomes consumed by their desires or passions, they may lose sight of their true identity and values, ultimately leading to a conflict between their pursuits and their inner self.
In practice
This quote would be powerful in a speech about the dangers of losing oneself in obsessive pursuits.
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 is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution.
There is no country but the heart.
The most consequential change in man's view of the world, of living nature and of himself came with the introduction, over a period of some 100 years beginning only in the 18th century, of the idea of change itself, of change over periods of time: in a word, of evolution.
If women are differentiated only by superficial physical attributes, men appear more individual and irreplaceable than they really are.
The Catholics have a Pope. Protestants laugh at them, and yet the Pope is capable of intellectual advancement. In addition to this, the Pope is mortal, and the church cannot be afflicted with the same idiot forever. The Protestants have a book for their Pope. The book cannot advance. Year after year, and century after century, the book remains as ignorant as ever.
Print encourages a sense of closure, a sense that what is found in a text has been finalized, has reached a state of completion.
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