"We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves."
Eric Hoffer was an American philosopher and social critic. A conservative moderate with an atypical working-class background, Hoffer wrote ten books over his career and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer (1951), was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that T
"What counts most is holding on. The growth of a train of thought is not a direct forward flow. There is a succession of spurts separated by intervals of stagnation, frustration, and discouragement. If you hold on, there is bound to come a certain clarification. The unessential components drop off and a coherent, lucid whole begins to take shape."
"Failure in the management of practical affairs seems to be a qualification for success in the management of public affairs."
"Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves."
"To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium."
"The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America."
"How rare it is to come across a piece of writing that is unambiguous, unqualified, and also unblurred by understatements or subtleties, and yet at the same time urbane and tolerant. It is a vice of the scientific method when applied to human affairs that it fosters hemming and hawing and a scrupulousness that easily degenerates into obscurity and meaninglessness."