It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.
Interpretation
The inability to appreciate the living signifies a decline in one's spirit and vitality.
Eric Hoffer's quote suggests that when we find ourselves unable to express admiration or appreciation for the vitality of those around us, it reflects a deeper issue within ourselves. This 'creeping inner death' indicates a stagnation of the spirit, where negativity or apathy takes root, preventing us from recognizing the beauty and life that exists in the world and within others.
In practice
During a motivational speech about embracing life and positivity.
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.
The foolish man conceives the idea of 'self.' The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of 'self;' thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.
When you confer a benefit on those worthy of it, you confer a favor on all.
God is not dead; nor doth He sleep; ... _x000D_ The wrong shall fail,_x000D_ The right prevail,_x000D_ With peace on earth, good will to men.
Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.
One of the things that I have admired about India is the spiritualism of the people.
The price of our vitality is the sum of all our fears
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