The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
Interpretation
Our actions and state of being greatly influence the world around us.
This quote by Eric Hoffer suggests that the collective attitude and strength of individuals play a crucial role in shaping the world. When individuals falter or lose hope, it affects not only their personal environment but also the larger societal context, underscoring the interconnectedness of human experiences and the responsibility we hold for one another.
In practice
During a motivational speech about community support.
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.
I have always struggled, with the sole intention of ceasing to struggle. Result: zero.
No destiny attacks us from outside. But, within him, man bears his fate and there comes a moment when he knows himself vulnerable; and then, as in a vertigo, blunder upon blunder lures him.
To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.
It doesn't matter if you please the whole world and don't please Jesus. But if you please Jesus, it doesn't matter whom you displease.
It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.
Is it worth it to be born if you cannot remember it later? And, technically speaking, had I ever been born? Other people, of course, said that I was. As far as I know, I was born in late April, at sixty years of age, in a hospital room.
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