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If Anybody Asks Me What I Have Accomplished, I Will Say All I Have Accomplished Is That I Have Written A Few Good Sentences.
-Eric Hoffer
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If Anybody Asks Me

Eric Hoffer
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If Anybody Asks Me What I Have Accomplished, I Will Say All I Have Accomplished Is That I Have Written A Few Good Sentences.

Understanding the Quote: "if anybody asks me what i have accomplished, i will say all..."

This quote by Eric Hoffer reflects deeply on the theme of accomplished. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Accomplished, Ask Me, Sentences, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Eric Hoffer interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer is celebrated for insightful thoughts on accomplished and ask me. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Accomplished
Ask Me
Sentences
More From Eric Hoffer
The Genuine Creator Creates Something That Has A Life Of Its Own, Something That Can Exist And Function Without Him. This Is True Not Only Of The Writer, Artist And Scientist, But Of Creators In Other Fields.with The Noncreative It Is The Other Way Around: In Whatever They Do, They Arrange Things So That They Themselves Become Indispensable.
Artist
Way
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Disappointment Is A Sort Of Bankruptcy - The Bankruptcy Of A Soul That Expends Too Much In Hope And Expectation.
Hope
Disappointment
Expectations
It Almost Seems That Nobody Can Hate America As Much As Native Americans. America Needs New Immigrants To Love And Cherish It.
Hate
Native American
Immigration
Rudeness Is A Weak Imitation Of Strength.
Attitude
Political
Glitter
They Who Clamor Loudest For Freedom Are Often The Ones Least Likely To Be Happy In A Free Society.
Clamor
Believer
True Believer
The Passion To Get Ahead Is Sometimes Born Of The Fear Lest We Be Left Behind.
Passion
Sometimes
Born
It Is The Acquisition Of Skills In Particular, Irrespective Of Their Utility, That Is Potent In Making Life Meaningful. Since Man Has No Inborn Skills, The Survival Of The Species Has Depended On The Ability To Acquire And Perfect Skills. Hence The Mastery Of Skills Is A Uniquely Human Activity And Yields Deep Satisfaction.
Meaningful
Men
Skills
Action Can Give Us The Feeling Of Being Useful, But Only Words Can Give Us A Sense Of Weight And Purpose.
Giving
Feelings
Purpose
A Sublime Religion Inevitably Generates A Strong Feeling Of Guilt. There Is An Unavoidable Contrast Between Loftiness Of Profession And Imperfection Of Practice. And, As One Would Expect, The Feeling Of Guilt Promotes Hate And Brazenness. Thus It Seems That The More Sublime The Faith The More Virulent The Hatred It Breeds.
Strong
Hate
Practice
We Clamor For Equality Chiefly In Matters In Which We Ourselves Cannot Hope To Obtain Excellence.
Equality
Excellence
Matter
Unless A Man Has The Talents To Make Something Of Himself, Freedom Is An Irksome Burden. We Join A Mass Movement To Escape From Individual Responsibility, Or, In The Words Of An Ardent Young Nazi, To Be Free From Freedom. It Was Not Sheer Hypocrisy When The Rank-and-file Nazis Declared Themselves Not Guilty Of All The Enormities They Had Committed. They Considered Themselves Cheated And Maligned When Made To Shoulder Responsibility For Obeying Orders. Had They Not Joined The Nazi Movement In Order To Be Free From Responsibility?
Responsibility
Men
Order
Proselytizing Is More A Passionate Search For Something Not Yet Found Than A Desire To Bestow Upon The World Something We Already Have. It Is A Search For A Final And Irrefutable Demonstration That Our Absolute Truth Is Indeed The One And Only Truth. The Proselytizing Fanatic Strengthens His Own Faith By Converting Others.
Society
Desire
World
Retribution Often Means That We Eventually Do To Ourselves What We Have Done Unto Others.
Mean
Done
Vengeance
Imitation Is Often A Shortcut To A Solution. We Copy When We Lack The Inclination, The Ability Or The Time To Work Out An Independent Solution. People In A Hurry Will Imitate More Readily Than People At Leisure. Hustling Thus Tends To Produce Uniformity. And In The Deliberate Fusing Of Individuals Into A Compact Group, Incessant Action Will Play A Considerable Role.
Independent
Play
People
Those Who See Their Lives As Spoiled And Wasted Crave Equality And Fraternity More Than They Do Freedom. If They Clamor For Freedom, It Is But Freedom To Establish Equality And Uniformity.
Equality
Fraternity
Spoiled
Starting Out From The Fact That The Frustrated Predominate Among The Early Adherents Of All Mass Movements And That They Usually Join Of Their Own Accord, It Is Assumed: 1) That Frustration Of Itself, Without Any Proselytizing Prompting From The Outside, Can Generate Most Of The Peculiar Characteristics Of The True Believer; 2) That An Effective Technique Of Conversion Consists Basically In The Inculcation And Fixation Of Proclivities And Responses Indigenous To The Frustrated Mind.
Frustration
Frustrated
Mind
It Is Thus With Most Of Us; We Are What Other People Say We Are. We Know Ourselves Chiefly By Hearsay.
Character
People
Gossip
Glory Is Largely A Theatrical Concept. There Is No Striving For Glory Without A Vivid Awareness Of An Audience.
Vivid
Awareness
Glory
A Society That Refuses To Strive For Superfluities Is Likely To End Up Lacking In Necessities.
Society
Strive
Ends
The Creative Mind Is The Playful Mind. Philosophy Is The Play And Dance Of Ideas.
Philosophy
Writing
Play
The Game Of History Is Usually Played By The Best And The Worst Over The Heads Of The Majority In The Middle.
Games
History
Political
To Lose One's Life Is But To Lose The Present; And, Clearly, To Lose A Defiled, Worthless Present Is Not To Lose Much.
Life Is
Loses
Worthless
There Are Many Who Find A Good Alibi Far More Attractive Than An Achievement. For An Achievement Does Not Settle Anything Permanently. We Still Have To Prove Our Worth Anew Each Day; We Have To Prove That We Are As Good Today As We Were Yesterday. But When We Have A Valid Alibi For Not Achieving Anything We Are Fixed, So To Speak, For Life.
Yesterday
Achievement
Doe
Both The Revolutionary And The Creative Individual Are Perpetual Juveniles. The Revolutionary Does Not Grow Up Because He Cannot Grow, While The Creative Individual Cannot Grow Up Because He Keeps Growing.
Success
Children
Growing Up
Action Is Basically A Reaction Against Loss Of Balance - A Flailing Of The Arms To To Regain One's Balance. To Dispose A Soul To Action, We Must Upset Its Equilibrium.
Loss
Upset
Soul
People Who Bite The Hand That Feeds Them Usually Lick The Boot That Kicks Them.
Respect
Gratitude
Hands
When You Automate An Industry You Modernize It; When You Automate A Life You Primitivize It.
Modernism
Modernity
Industry
Our Passionate Preoccupation With The Sky, The Stars, And A God Somewhere In Outer Space Is A Homing Impulse. We Are Drawn Back To Where We Came From.
God
Stars
Airplane
All Leaders Strive To Turn Their Followers Into Children.
Children
Leader
Followers
One Might Equate Growing Up With A Mistrust Of Words. A Mature Person Trusts His Eyes More Than His Ears. Irrationality Often Manifests Itself In Upholding The Word Against The Evidence Of The Eyes. Children, Savages And True Believers Remember Far Less What They Have Seen Than What They Have Heard.
Children
Growing Up
Eye
To Spell Out The Obvious Is Often To Call It In Question.
Work
Obvious
Spells
There Is Probably Nothing More Sublime Than Discontent Transmuted Into A Work Of Art, A Scientific Discovery, And So On.
Art
Discovery
Creative
The Real Persuaders Are Our Appetites, Our Fears And Above All Our Vanity. The Skillful Propagandist Stirs And Coaches These Internal Persuaders.
Fear
Real
Vanity
There Is No Reason Why Humanity Cannot Be Served Equally By Weighty And Trivial Motives.
Humanity
Reason Why
Motive
Every Era Has A Currency That Buys Souls. In Some The Currency Is Pride, In Others It Is Hope, In Still Others It Is A Holy Cause. There Are Of Course Times When Hard Cash Will Buy Souls, And The Remarkable Thing Is That Such Times Are Marked By Civility, Tolerance, And The Smooth Working Of Everyday Life.
Wise
Wisdom
Pride
Radicalism Itself Ceases To Be Radical When Absorbed Mainly In Preserving Its Control Over A Society Or An Economy.
Radicalism
Economy
Radical
Propaganda ... Serves More To Justify Ourselves Than To Convince Others; And The More Reason We Have To Feel Guilty, The More Fervent Our Propaganda.
Guilty
Reason
Propaganda
The Truth Seems To Be That Propaganda On Its Own Cannot Force Its Way Into Unwilling Minds; Neither Can It Inculcate Something Wholly New; Nor Can It Keep People Persuaded Once They Have Ceased To Believe. It Penetrates Into Minds Already Open, And Rather Than Instill Opinion It Articulates And Justifies Opinions Already Present In The Minds Of Its Recipients.
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We Usually See Only The Things We Are Looking For- So Much So That We Sometimes See Them Where They Are Not.
Sometimes
How Much Easier Is Self-sacrifice Than Self-realization!
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A Free Society Is As Much A Threat To The Intellectual's Sense Of Worth As An Automated Economy Is To The Workingman's Sense Of Worth. Any Social Order That Can Function With A Minimum Of Leadership Will Be Anathema To The Intellectual.
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There Is No Telling To What Extremes Of Cruelty And Ruthlessness A Man Will Go When He Is Freed From The Fears, Hesitations, Doubts And The Vague Stirrings Of Decency That Go With Individual Judgment.
Men
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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.
Men
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Excesses Are Essentially Gestures. It Is Easy To Be Extremely Cruel, Magnanimous, Humble Or Self-sacrificing When We See Ourselves As Actors In A Performance.
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Ours Is A Golden Age Of Minorities. At No Time In The Past Have Dissident Minorities Felt So Much At Home And Had So Much Room To Throw Their Weight Around. They Speak And Act As If They Were "the People," And What They Abominate Most Is The Dissent Of The Majority.
Home
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People
It Was The Craving To Be A One And Only People Which Impelled The Ancient Hebrews To Invent A One And Only God Whose One And Only People They Were To Be.
People
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It Is A Perplexing And Unpleasant Truth That When Men Already Have "something Worth Fighting For,they Do Not Feel Like Fighting.
Fighting
Men
Society
There Is Probably An Element Of Malice In Our Readiness To Overestimate People - We Are, As It Were, Laying Up For Ourselves The Pleasure Of Later Cutting Them Down To Size.
Cutting
People
Size
Nature Is A Self-made Machine, More Perfectly Automated Than Any Automated Machine. To Create Something In The Image Of Nature Is To Create A Machine, And It Was By Learning The Inner Working Of Nature That Man Became A Builder Of Machines.
Nature
Men
Self
They Who Lack Talent Expect Things To Happen Without Effort. They Ascribe Failure To A Lack Of Inspiration Or Ability, Or To Misfortune, Rather Than To Insufficient Application. At The Core Of Every True Talent There Is An Awareness Of The Difficulties Inherent In Any Achievement, And The Confidence That By Persistence And Patience Something Worthwhile Will Be Realized. Thus Talent Is A Species Of Vigor.
Failure
Inspiration
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Jesus Was Not A Christian, Nor Was Marx A Marxist.
Christian
Jesus
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Add A Few Drops Of Venom To A Half Truth And You Have An Absolute Truth.
Truth
Honesty
Add
The Proselytizing Fanatic Strengthens His Own Faith By Converting Others. The Creed Whose Legitimacy Is Most Easily Challenged Is Likely To Develop The Strongest Proselytizing Impulse.
Legitimacy
Creeds
Impulse
The Most Troublesome Problem Which Confronts Social Engineering Is How To Provide For The Untalented And, What Is Equally Important, How To Provide Against Them.
Engineering
Important
Problem
Our Doubts About Ourselves Cannot Be Banished Except By Working At That Which Is The One And Only Thing We Know We Ought To Do. Other People's Assertions Cannot Silence The Howling Dirge Within Us. It Is Our Talents Rusting Unused Within Us That Secrete The Poison Of Self-doubt Into Our Bloodstream.
Self
People
Silence
In A Trader-dominated Society, The Scribe Is Usually Kept Out Of The Management Of Affairs, But It Given A More Or Less Free Hand In The Cultural Field. By Frustrating The Scribe's Craving For Commanding Action, The Trader Draws Upon Himself The Scribe's Wrath And Scorn.
Wrath
Hands
Fields
A Man Is Likely To Mind His Own Business When It Is Worth Minding. When It Is Not, He Takes His Mind Off His Own Meaningless Affairs By Minding Other People's Business.
War
Men
People
When Grubbing For Necessities Man Is Still An Animal. He Becomes Uniquely Human When He Reaches Out For The Superfluous And Extravagant.
Animal
Men
Society
It Is Easier To Love Humanity As A Whole Than To Love One's Neighbor.
Love
Meaningful
Pregnancy
Passionate Intensity May Serve As A Substitute For Confidence.
Passionate
May
Intensity
The Fear Of Becoming A 'has-been' Keeps Some People From Becoming Anything.
Inspirational
Fear
People
Lack Of Sensitivity Is Perhaps Basically An Unawareness Of Ourselves.
Unawareness
Sensitivity
The Individual's Most Vital Need Is To Prove His Worth, And This Usually Means An Insatiable Hunger For Action. For It Is Only The Few Who Can Acquire A Sense Of Worth By Developing And Employing Their Capacities And Talents. The Majority Prove Their Worth By Keeping Busy.
Mean
Insatiable Hunger
Majority
A Just Society Must Strive With All Its Might To Right Wrongs Even If Righting Wrongs Is A Highly Perilous Undertaking. But If It Is To Survive, A Just Society Must Be Strong And Resolute Enough To Deal Swiftly And Relentlessly With Those Who Would Mistake Its Good Will For Weakness.
Strong
Mistake
Weakness
We Are Ready To Die For An Opinion But Not For A Fact: Indeed, It Is By Our Readiness To Die That We Try To Prove The Factualness Of Our Opinion.
Trying
Facts
Opinion
In Human Affairs, The Best Stimulus For Running Ahead Is To Have Something We Must Run From.
Running
Progress
Society
Free Men Are Aware Of The Imperfection Inherent In Human Affairs, And They Are Willing To Fight And Die For That Which Is Not Perfect.
Fighting
Men
Perfect
One Of The Chief Differences Between An Adult And A Juvenile Is That The Adult Knows When He Is An Ass While The Juvenile Never Does.
Wisdom
Differences
Adults
It Still Holds True That Man Is Most Uniquely Human When He Turns Obstacles Into Opportunities.
Success
Opportunity
Men
In Running Away From Ourselves We Either Fall On Our Neighbor's Shoulder Or Fly At His Throat.
Running
Fall
Anxiety
The Hardest Thing To Cope With Is Not Selfishness Or Vanity Or Deceitfulness, But Sheer Stupidity.
Vanity
Stupidity
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Facts Are Counterrevolutionary.
Literature
Facts
Rebellious
The Conservatism Of A Religion - It's Orthodoxy - Is The Inert Coagulum Of A Once Highly Reactive Sap.
Sap
Orthodoxy
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Those Who Feel Guilty Are Afraid; And Those Who Are Afraid Somehow Feel Guilty. To The Onlooker, Too, The Fearful Seem Guilty.
Guilty
Feels
Fearful
I Always Held My Flower In A Clenched Fist.
Flower
Fists
To Think Out A Problem Is Not Unlike Drawing A Caricature. You Have To Exaggerate The Salient Point And Leave Out That Which Is Not Typical. "to Illustrate A Principle ," Says Bagehot , "you Must Exaggerate Much And You Must Omit Much." As To The Quantity Of Absolute Truth In A Thought : It Seems To Me The More Comprehensive And Unobjectionable A Thought Becomes, The More Clumsy And Unexciting It Gets. I Like Half-truths Of A Certain Kind They Are Interesting And They Stimulate.
Thinking
Drawing
Interesting
Wordiness Is A Sickness Of American Writing. Too Many Words Dilute And Blur Ideas.
Writing
Ideas
Sickness
Never Have The Young Taken Themselves So Seriously, And The Calamity Is That They Are Listened To And Deferred To By So Many Adults.
Taken
Adults
Calamity
It Is The Pull Of Opposite Poles That Stretches Souls. And Only Stretched Souls Make Music.
Opposites
Soul
Tension
...the Differences Between The Conservative And The Radical Seem To Spring Mainly From Their Attitude Toward The Future. Fear Of The Future Causes Us To Lean Against And Cling To The Present, While Faith In The Future Renders Us Receptive To Change.
Attitude
Spring
Differences
Our Originality Shows Itself Most Strikingly Not In What We Wholly Originate But In What We Do With That Which We Borrow From Others.
Originality
Shows
Nature Has No Compassion. Nature Accepts No Excuses And The Only Punishment It Knows Is Death.
Nature
Compassion
Punishment
Where There Is The Necessary Technical Skill To Move Mountains, There Is No Need For The Faith That Moves Mountains.
Moving
Technology
Skills
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.
Life
Book
Learning
The Great Crimes Of The Twentieth Century Were Committed Not By Money-grubbing Capitalists But By Dedicated Idealists. Lenin, Stalin, And Hitler Were Contemptuous Of Money. The Passage From The Nineteenth To The Twentieth Century Has Been A Passage From Considerations Of Money To Considerations Of Power.
Communism
Crime
Consideration
The Well-adjusted Make Poor Prophets.
Poor
Prophet
Wells
He Who Has Nothing And Wants Something Is Less Frustrated Than He Who Has Something And Wants More.
Want Something
Frustrated
Want
The Revulsion From An Unwanted Self, And The Impulse To Forget It, Mask It, Slough It Off And Lose It, Produce Both A Readiness To Sacrifice The Self And A Willingness To Dissolve It By Losing One's Individual Distinctness In A Compact Collective Whole.
Sacrifice
Self
Society
It Is Part Of The Formidableness Of A Genuine Mass Movement That The Self-sacrifice It Promotes Includes Also A Sacrifice Of Some Of The Moral Sense, Which Cramps And Restrains Our Nature.
Sacrifice
Self
Movement
We Are Made Kind By Being Kind.
Kindness
Be Kind
Kind
We Can Be Absolutely Certain Only About Things We Do Not Understand.
Thinking
Certain
Agnosticism
When We Believe Ourselves In Possession Of The Only Truth, We Are Likely To Be Indifferent To Common Everyday Truths.
Believe
Everyday
Common
I Could Never Figure Out Or Probably Did Not Take The Trouble To Figure Out What The Great Philosophical Problems Are About. The Momentous Statements I Come Across Are At Best A Storm In A Teacup. There Are Quite A Number Of People Who Have A Vested Interest In The Stuff, Make A Noble Living Out Of It, And They Conspire With One Another To Keep It Alive.
Philosophical
Numbers
People
In An Adequate Social Order, The Untalented Should Be Able To Acquire A Sense Of Usefulness And Of Growth Without Interfering With The Development Of Talent Around Them
Order
Growth
Development
A Person's Creative Ability Decreases In Direct Proportion To The Degree To Which He Takes Himself Seriously.
Creative
Degrees
Proportion
Unlimited Opportunities Can Be As Potent A Cause Of Frustration As A Paucity Or Lack Of Opportunities.
Frustration
Opportunity
Causes
The Aspiration Toward Freedom Is The Most Essentially Human Of All Human Manifestations.
Liberty
Aspiration
Manifestation
What Merit There Is In My Thinking Is Derived From Two Peculiarities: (1) My Inability To Be Familiar With Anything. I Simply Can't Take Things For Granted. (2) My Endless Patience. I Assume That The Only Way To Find An Answer Is To Hang On Long Enough And Keep Groping.
Thinking
Two
Long
To Change Everything, Simply Change Your Attitude.
Attitude
Change Your Attitude
To The Frustrated, Freedom From Responsibility Is More Attractive Than Freedom From Restraint. They Are Eager To Barter Their Independence For Relief From The Burdens Of Willing, Deciding And Being Responsible For Inevitable Failure. They Willingly Abdicate The Directing Of Their Lives To Those Who Want To Plan, Command And Shoulder All Responsibility.
Responsibility
Frustrated
Independence
The Short-lived Self, Teetering On The Edge Of Extinction, Is The Only Thing That Can Ever Really Matter.
Self
Extinction
Matter
True Loyalty Between Individuals Is Possible Only In A Loose And Relatively Free Society.
Loyalty
Individual
Believer
There Is In Most Passions A Shrinking Away From Ourselves. The Passionate Pursuer Has All The Earmarks Of A Fugitive.
Passion
Shrinking
Literature
Compassion Is The Antitoxin Of The Soul: Where There Is Compassion Even The Most Poisonous Impulses Remain Relatively Harmless.
Compassion
Soul
Impulse
We Cannot Win The Weak By Sharing Our Wealth With Them. They Feel Our Generosity As Oppression.
Winning
Generosity
Weakness
The Central Task Of Education Is To Implant A Will And Facility For Learning; It Should Produce Not Learned But Learning People. The Truly Human Society Is A Learning Society, Where Grandparents, Parents, And Children Are Students Together.
Wisdom
Children
Knowledge
It Is A Sign Of Creeping Inner Death When We Can No Longer Praise The Living.
Life
Death
Literature
Those In Possession Of Absolute Power Can Not Only Prophesy And Make Their Prophecies Come True, But They Can Also Lie And Make Their Lies Come True.
Lying
Power
Government
The Trouble Is Not Chiefly That Our Universities Are Unfit For Students But That Many Present-day Students Are Unfit For Universities.
Students
Trouble
University
It Is Startling To Realize How Much Unbelief Is Necessary To Make Belief Possible.
Belief
Realizing
Believer
Social Improvement Is Attained More Readily By A Concern With The Quality Of Results Than With The Purity Of Motives.
Society
Quality
Improvement
One Is Not Quite Certain That Creativeness In The Arts, Literature, And Science Functions Best In An Environment Of Absolute Freedom. Chances Are That A Relatively Mild Tyranny Stimulates Creativeness.
Art
Literature
Chance
By Circumstance And Perhaps Also By Inclination, I Think In Complete Intellectual Isolation. To Expect Others To Help Me Think Seems To Me Almost Like Expecting Them To Help Me Digest My Food.
Thinking
Intellectual
Helping
There Is No Reason Why The Profoundest Thoughts Should Not Make Easy And Exciting Reading. A Profound Thought Is An Exciting Thing As Exciting As A Detective's Deductions Or Hunches. The Simpler The Words In Which A Thought Is Expressed The More Stimulating Its Effect.
Reading
Profound
Detectives
Death Has But One Terror, That It Has No Tomorrow.
Death
Dying
Tomorrow
You Can Never Get Enough Of What You Don't Need To Make You Happy.
Happiness
Being Happy
Simple
Our Sense Of Power Is More Vivid When We Break A Man's Spirit Than When We Win His Heart.
Break Up
Heart
Winning
It Is Often The Failure Who Is The Pioneer In New Lands, New Undertakings, And New Forms Of Expression.
Failure
Expression
Land
It Takes A Vice To Check A Vice, And Virtue Is The By-product Of A Stalemate Between Opposite Vices.
Opposites
Vices
Virtue
Propaganda Does Not Deceive People; It Merely Helps Them To Deceive Themselves.
Hype
People
Doe
The Rule Seems To Be That Those Who Find No Difficulty In Deceiving Themselves Are Easily Deceived By Others. They Are Easily Persuaded And Led.
Society
Deceiving
Deceived
To Be Aware How Fruitful The Playful Mood Can Be Is To Be Immune To The Propaganda Of The Alienated, Which Extols Resentment As A Fuel Of Achievement.
Achievement
Fuel
Resentment
Unless A Man Has The Talents To Make Something Of Himself, Freedom Is An Irksome Burden.
Freedom
Men
Liberty
More Significant Than The Fact That Poets Write Abstrusely, Painters Paint Abstractly, And Composers Compose Unintelligible Music Is That People Should Admire What They Cannot Understand; Indeed, Admire That Which Has No Meaning Or Principle.
Pain
Writing
People
However Much We Talk Of The Inexorable Laws Governing The Life Of Individuals And Of Societies, We Remain At The Bottom Convinced That In Human Affairs Everything In More Or Less Fortuitous. We Do Not Even Believe In The Inevitability Of Our Own Death. Hence The Difficulty Of Deciphering The Present, Of Detecting The Seeds Of Things To Come As They Germinate Before Our Eyes. We Are Not Attuned To Seeing The Inevitable.
Life
Believe
Eye
Freedom Released The Energies Of The Masses Not By Exhilarating But By Unbalancing, Irritating, And Goading.
Freedom
Energy
Mass
Often, The Thing We Pursue Most Passionately Is But A Substitute For The One Thing We Really Want And Cannot Have.
Want
Substitutes
Pursue
The True Believer, No Matter How Rowdy And Violent His Acts, Is Basically An Obedient And Submissive Person.
Rowdy
Matter
Submissive
That Which Is Unique And Worthwhile In Us Makes Itself Felt Only In Flashes. If We Do Not Know How To Catch And Savor The Flashes We Are Without Growth And Exhilaration.
Unique
Growth
Exhilaration
Modern Man Is Weighed Down More By The Burden Of Responsibility Than By The Burden Of Sin. We Think Him More A Savior Who Shoulders Our Responsibilities Than Him Who Shoulders Our Sins. If Instead Of Making Decisions We Have But To Obey And Do Our Duty, We Feel It As A Sort Of Salvation.
Responsibility
Men
Thinking
Fair Play With Others Is Primarily The Practice Of Not Blaming Them For Anything That Is Wrong With Us. We Tend To Rub Our Guilty Conscience Against Others The Way We Wipe Dirty Fingers On A Rag. This Is As Evil A Misuse Of Others As The Practice Of Exploitation.
Dirty
Practice
Play
The Poor On The Borderline Of Starvation Live Purposeful Lives. To Be Engaged In A Desperate Struggle For Food And Shelter Is To Be Wholly Free From A Sense Of Futility
Struggle
Shelter
Poverty
We Need Not Only A Purpose In Life To Give Meaning To Our Existence But Also Something To Give Meaning To Our Suffering. We Need As Much Something To Suffer For As Something To Live For.
Life
Giving
Suffering
There Is Sublime Thieving In All Giving. Someone Gives Us All He Has And We Are His.
Giving
Sublime
Literature
Self-righteousness Is A Loud Din Raised To Drown The Voice Of Guilt Within Us.
Humility
Self
Voice
Poverty When Coupled With Creativeness Is Usually Free Of Frustration. This Is True Of The Poor Artisan Skilled In His Trade And Of The Poor Writer, Artist, And Scientist In The Full Possession Of Creative Powers. Nothing So Bolsters Our Self-confidence And Reconciles Us With Ourselves As The Continuous Ability To Create; To See Things Grow And Develop Under Our Hand, Day In, Day Out. The Decline Of Handicrafts In Modern Times Is Perhaps One Of The Causes For The Rise Of Frustration And The Increased Susceptibility Of The Individual To Mass Movements.
Self Confidence
Artist
Frustration
What Are We When We Are Alone? Some, When They Are Alone, Cease To Exist.
Cease
There Is No Telling To What Extremes Of Cruelty And Ruthlessness A Man Will Go When He Is Freed From The Fears, Hesitations, Doubts And The Vague Stirrings Of Decency That Go With Individual Judgement. When We Lose Our Individual Independence In The Corporateness Of A Mass Movement, We Find A New Freedom- Freedom To Hate, Bully, Lie, Torture, Murder And Betray Without Shame And Remorse. Herein Undoubtedly Lies Part Of The Attractiveness Of A Mass Movement
Lying
Hate
Men
People Unfit For Freedom - Who Cannot Do Much With It - Are Hungry For Power. The Desire For Freedom Is An Attribute Of A "have" Type Of Self. It Says: Leave Me Alone And I Shall Grow, Learn, And Realize My Capacities. The Desire For Power Is Basically An Attribute Of A "have Not" Type Of Self.
Equality
Self
People
Craving, Not Having, Is The Mother Of A Reckless Giving Of Oneself.
Mother
Giving
Literature
The Pleasure We Derive From Doing Favors Is Partly In The Feeling It Gives Us That We Are Not Altogether Worthless. It Is A Pleasant Surprise To Ourselves.
Giving
Feelings
Literature
It Is The Individual Only Who Is Timeless. Societies, Cultures, And Civilizations -- Past And Present -- Are Often Incomprehensible To Outsiders, But The Individual's Hungers, Anxieties, Dreams, And Preoccupations Have Remained Unchanged Through The Millenia.
Dream
Past
Civilization
Nothing So Bolsters Our Self-confidence And Reconciles Us With Ourselves As The Continuous Ability To Create; To See Things Grow And Develop Under Our Hand, Day In, Day Out.
Self Confidence
Hands
Ability
Far More Crucial Than What We Know Or Do Not Know Is What We Do Not Want To Know. One Often Obtains A Clue To A Person's Nature By Discovering The Reasons For His Or Her Imperviousness To Certain Impressions.
Want
Clue
Reason
The Difficult And Risky Task Of Meeting And Mastering The New . . . Is Not Undertaken By The Vanguard Of Society But By Its Rear. It Is The Misfits, Failures, Fugitives, Outcasts And Their Like Who Are Among The First To Grapple With The New.
Work
Tasks
Firsts
The Hardest Arithmetic To Master Is That Which Enables Us To Count Our Blessings.
Thank You
Thankful
Gratitude
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.
Art
Reality
Men
The Hatred And Cruelty Which Have Their Source In Selfishness Are Ineffectual Things Compared With The Venom And Ruthlessness Born Of Selflessness.
Hatred
Selfishness
Ruthlessness
Without A Sense Of Proportion There Can Be Neither Good Taste Nor Genuine Intelligence, Nor Perhaps Moral Integrity.
Integrity
Balance
Taste
Nature Attains Perfection, But Man Never Does. There Is A Perfect Ant, A Perfect Bee, But Man Is Perpetually Unfinished. He Is Both An Unfinished Animal And An Unfinished Man. It Is This Incurable Unfinishedness Which Sets Man Apart From Other Living Things. For, In The Attempt To Finish Himself, Man Becomes A Creator. Moreover, The Incurable Unfinishedness Keeps Man Perpetually Immature, Perpetually Capable Of Learning And Growing.
Animal
Men
Perfect
We Cannot Hate Those Who We Despise.
Hate
Despise
Those Who Lack The Capacity To Achieve Much In An Atmosphere Of Freedom Will Clamor For Power.
Equality
Atmosphere
Liberty
It Is A Juvenile Notion That A Society Needs A Lofty Purpose And A Shining Vision To Achieve Much. Both In The Market Place And On The Battlefield Men Who Set Their Hearts On Toys Have Often Displayed Unequal Initiative And Drive. And One Must Be Ignorant Of The Creative Process To Look For A Close Correspondence Between Motive And Achievement In The World Of Thought And Imagination.
Heart
Men
Imagination
That Which Corrodes The Souls Of The Persecuted Is The Monstrous Inner Agreement With The Prevailing Prejudice Against Them.
Agreement
Soul
Prejudice
The Quality Of Ideas Seems To Play A Minor Role In Mass Movement Leadership. What Counts Is The Arrogant Gesture, The Complete Disregard Of The Opinion Of Others, The Singlehanded Defiance Of The World.
Play
Ideas
Quality
The Sick In Soul Insist That It Is Humanity That Is Sick, And They Are The Surgeons To Operate On It. They Want To Turn The World Into A Sickroom. And Once They Get Humanity Strapped To The Operating Table, They Operate On It With An Ax.
Sick
Soul
Humanity
Take Away Hatred From Some People, And You Have Men Without Faith.
Men
People
Hatred
The Remarkable Thing Is That It Is The Crowded Life That Is Most Easily Remembered. A Life Full Of Turns, Achievements, Disappointments, Surprises, And Crises Is A Life Full Of Landmarks. The Empty Life Has Even Its Few Details Blurred, And Cannot Be Remembered With Certainty.
Disappointment
Empty Life
Achievement
We Probably Have A Greater Love For Those We Support Than For Those Who Support Us. Our Vanity Carries More Weight Than Our Self-interest.
Vanity
Self
Support
Spiritual Stagnation Ensues When Man's Environment Becomes Unpredictable Or When His Inner Life Is Made Wholly Predictable.
Spiritual
Men
Society
Children Are The Keys Of Paradise.
Children
Reality
Keys
Only The Individual Who Has Come To Terms With His Self Can Have A Dispassionate Attitude Toward The World.
Attitude
Self
World
In A Time Of Drastic Change, It Is The Learners Who Inherit The Future.
Life
Motivational
Change
The Passion For Equality Is Partly A Passion For Anonymity: To Be One Thread Of The Many Which Make Up A Tunic; One Thread Not Distinguishable From The Others. No One Can Then Point Us Out, Measure Us Against Others And Expose Our Inferiority.
Passion
Inferiority
Thread
Youth Itself Is A Talent, A Perishable Talent.
Time
Youth
Talent
The Vigor Of A Mass Movement Stems From The Propensity Of Its Followers For United Action And Self-sacrifice. When We Ascribe The Success Of A Movement To Its Faith, Doctrine, Propaganda, Leadership, Ruthlessness And So On, We Are But Referring To Instruments Of Unification And To Means Used To Inculcate A Readiness For Self-sacrifice. It Is Perhaps Impossible To Understand The Nature Of A Mass Movement Unless It Is Recognized That Their Chief Preoccupation Is To Foster, Perfect And Perpetuate A Facility For United Action And Self-sacrifice.
Mean
Sacrifice
Self
Nationalist Pride, Like Other Variants Of Pride, Can Be A Substitute For Self-respect.
Respect
Humility
Pride
However Different The Holy Causes People Die For, They Perhaps Die Basically For The Same Thing.
People
Different
Holiness
Creativity Is The Ability To Introduce Order Into The Randomness Of Nature.
Creativity
Order
Chaos
A Ruling Intelligentsia, Whether In Europe, Asia Or Africa, Treats The Masses As Raw Material To Be Experimented On, Processed, And Wasted At Will.
Patriotic
Europe
Raw Materials
Man Staggers Through Life Yapped At By His Reason, Pulled And Shoved By His Appetites, Whispered To By Fears, Beckoned By Hopes. Small Wonder That What He Craves Most Is Self-forgetting.
Fear
Men
Self
The Desire To Be Different From The People We Live With Is Sometimes The Result Of Our Rejection- Real Or Imagined- By Them.
Real
People
Rejection
In Products Of The Human Mind, Simplicity Marks The End Of A Process Of Refining, While Complexity Marks A Primitive Stage. Michelangelo 's Definition Of Art As The Purgation Of Superfluities Suggests That The Creative Effort Consists Largely In The Elimination Of That Which Complicates And Confuses A Pattern.
Art
Simplicity
Effort
Animals Can Learn, But It Is Not By Learning That They Become Dogs, Cats, Or Horses. Only Man Has To Learn To Become What He Is Supposed To Be.
Dog
Horse
Cat
Unlike The Pattern Which Seems To Prevail In The Rest Of Life, In The Human Species The Weak Not Only Survive But Often Triumph Over The Strong. The Self-hatred Inherent In The Weak Unlocks Energies Far More Formidable Then Those Mobilized By An Ordinary Struggle For Existence.
Strong
Struggle
Rest Of Life
All Mass Movements Avail Themselves Of Action As A Means Of Unification. The Conflicts A Mass Movement Seeks And Incites Serve Not Only To Down Its Enemies But Also To Strip Its Followers Of Their Distinct Individuality And Render Them More Soluble In The Collective Medium.
Mean
Individuality
Enemy
With Some People Solitariness Is An Escape Not From Others But From Themselves. For They See In The Eyes Of Others Only A Reflection Of Themselves.
Lonely
Loneliness
Being Alone
Where Freedom Is Real, Equality Is The Passion Of The Masses. Where Equality Is Real, Freedom Is The Passion Of A Small Minority.
Real
Passion
Equality
To The Excessively Fearful The Chief Characteristic Of Power Is Its Arbitrariness. Man Had To Gain Enormously In Confidence Before He Could Conceive An All-powerful God Who Obeys His Own Laws.
Powerful
Men
Law
A Man's Worth Is What He Is Divided By What He Thinks He Is.
Men
Thinking
Divided
Where Unity And Self-sacrifice Are Indispensable For The Normal Functioning Of Society, Everyday Life Is Likely To Be Either Religiofied (common Tasks Turned Into Holy Causes) Or Militarized.
Sacrifice
Self
Unity
It Is The Malady Of Our Age That The Young Are So Busy Teaching Us That They Have No Time Left To Learn.
Teacher
Time
Children
Nonconformists Travel As A Rule In Bunches. You Rarely Find A Nonconformist Who Goes It Alone. And Woe To Him Inside A Nonconformist Clique Who Does Not Conform With Nonconformity.
Doe
Woe
Conformity
Far More Crucial Than What We Know Or Do Not Know Is What We Do Not Want To Know.
Art
Philosophy
History
We Are Told That Talent Creates Its Own Opportunities. But It Sometimes Seems That Intense Desire Creates Not Only Its Own Opportunities, But Its Own Talents.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
When The Weak Want To Give An Impression Of Strength They Hint Menacingly At Their Capacity For Evil. It Is By Its Promise Of A Sense Of Power That Evil Often Attracts The Weak.
Evil
Giving
Promise
There Is Nothing More Explosive Than A Skilled Population Condemned To Inaction. Such A Population Is Likely To Become A Hotbed Of Extremism And Intolerance, And Be Receptive To Any Proselytizing Ideology, However Absurd And Vicious, Which Promises Vast Action.
Promise
Population
Action
The Ability To Get Along Without An Exceptional Leader Is The Mark Of Social Vigor.
Leader
Vigor
Social
Nature Attains Perfection, But Man Never Does.
Nature
Men
Perfection
To Overestimate The Originality Of One's Thoughts Is Perhaps A Less Serious Defect Than Being Unaware Of Their Newness. There Is A More Pronounced Lack Of Sensitivity In Underestimating (ourselves And Others) Than In Overestimating.
Serious
Originality
Underestimate
Those Who Would Sacrifice A Generation To Realize An Ideal Are The Enemies Of Mankind.
Sacrifice
Enemy
Generations
It Has Often Been Said That Power Corrupts. But It Is Perhaps Equally Important To Realize That Weakness, Too, Corrupts. Power Corrupts The Few, While Weakness Corrupts The Many. Hatred, Malice, Rudeness, Intolerance, And Suspicion Are The Faults Of Weakness. The Resentment Of The Weak Does Not Spring From Any Injustice Done To Them But From Their Sense Of Inadequacy And Impotence. We Cannot Win The Weak By Sharing Our Wealth With Them. They Feel Our Generosity As Oppression.
Spring
Winning
Power
The Individual Who Has To Justify His Existence By His Own Efforts Is In Eternal Bondage To Himself.
Effort
Individuality
Literature
The Taint Inherent In Absolute Power Is Not Its Inhumanity But Its Antihumanity.
Power Corrupts
Inhumanity
Absolute Power
The Well Adjusted Make Poor Prophets. A Pleasant Existence Blinds Us To The Possibilities Of Drastic Change. We Cling To What We Call Our Common Sense, Our Practical Point Of View. Actually, These Are Names For An All-absorbing Familiarity With Things As They Are. . . . Thus It Happens That When The Times Become Unhinged, It Is The Practical People Who Are Caught Unaware . . . Still Clinging To Things That No Longer Exist.
Views
Names
People
Successful Action Tends To Become An End In Itself.
Success
Successful
Action
[the Designated Or Chosen Leader Tries To] Articulate And Justify The Resentment Dammed Up In The Souls Of The Frustrated. He Kindles The Vision Of A Breathtaking Future So As To Justify The Sacrifice Of A Transitory Present. He Stages The World Of Make-believe So Indispensable For The Realization Of Self-sacrifice And United Action.
Believe
Sacrifice
Self
There Is A Totalitarian Regime Inside Every One Of Us. We Are Ruled By A Ruthless Politburo Which Sets Our Norms And Drives Us From One Five-year Plan To Another. The Autonomous Individual Who Has To Justify His Existence By His Own Efforts Is In Eternal Bondage To Himself.
Years
Effort
Individuality
Humility Is Not Renunciation Of Pride But The Substitution Of One Pride For Another.
Humility
Pride
Substitution
To Be Ruthless Requires Belief That Our Life On Earth Is But A Brief Prelude To An Afterlife, Or A Temporary Sacrifice Before Some Utopia Can Be Instituted. Where There Is The Necessary Technical Skill To Move Mountains, There Is No Need For The Faith That Moves Mountains.
Moving
Sacrifice
Skills
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