Quotessence
Home / Books / Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer

Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer

Book by Eric Hoffer · 14 quotes · Men, Self, Humans

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenSelfHumansTrue BelieverIndividualPeopleWorldActionMassSocietyMovementAbsolutesAchievementAffairDoeLiteratureSoulBelieverCapacityChildren

Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer Quotes

“A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaningless of an individual existence. It cures the poignantly frustrated not by conferring upon them an absolute truth or by remedying the difficulties and abuses which made their lives miserable, but by freeing them from their ineffectual selves and it does this by enfolding and absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant corporate whole.”

DoeMadeSelfWholeIndividualExistenceSocietyMovementPromiseOffersAnxietyMassAbuseDifficultyAbsolutesFollowingDoctrineCuresMiserableCorporateRisingMeaninglessFrustratedRefugeAbsorbingAbsolute TruthTrue Believer
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
Create image

“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.”

WorldFactsRealityMovementHolyTruth IsMassUltimateBasesAbsolutesStriveProofScreensBelieverDoctrineConclusionObservationFaithfulAbsolute TruthTrue BelieverCertitude
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
Create image

“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.”

DreamPastCultureIndividualCivilizationAnxietyHungerIndividualityConformityOutsidersTimelessPreoccupationPast And PresentTrue Believer
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
Create image

“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.”

ChildrenPersonsMightEyeRememberGrowing UpGrowingHeardEvidenceEarsBelieverSensesMaturityHis EyesMatureSavagesMistrustTrue BelieverIrrationalityMature PersonGathering Data
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
Create image

“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.”

MindFactsMovementMassResponseStartingTechniqueBelieverConversionCharacteristicsFrustrationPeculiarFrustratedIndigenousAccordTrue BelieverStarting OutFixationProselytizing
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
Create image