Eric Hoffer Quotes About Reality
-
To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for. It is only when we see ourselves as actors in a staged (and therefore unreal) performance that death loses its frightfulness and finality and becomes an act of make-believe and a theatrical gesture. It is one of the main tasks of a real leader to mask the grim reality of dying and killing by evoking in his followers the illusion that they are participating in a grandiose spectacle, a solemn or lighthearted dramatic performance.
→ -
All mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. The facts on which the true believer bases his conclusions must not be derived from his experience or observation but from holy writ.
→ -
A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.
→ -
All great art is revolutionary because it touches upon the reality of man and questions the reality of the various transitory forms of human society.
→ -
Children are the keys of paradise.
→ -
To a man utterly without a sense of belonging, mere life is all that matters. It is the only reality in an eternity of nothingness, and he clings to it with shameless despair.
→
Related Authors
-
Karen Horney Psychoanalyst -
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Professor -
Edmund Burke Statesman -
Eric Sevareid Journalist -
Anna Freud Psychologist -
Immanuel Kant Philosopher -
Francois de La Rochefoucauld Author -
Nassim Nicholas Taleb Author -
Michel de Montaigne Writer -
Eric Berne Author -
-
Erich Fromm Psychologist -
Sidney Poitier Actor -
David D. Burns Author -
Thomas Sowell Economist -
Matt Labash Journalist -
William James Philosopher -
Stanislav Grof Psychiatrist -
John Derbyshire Writer -
M. Stanton Evans Journalist