Quotes by Hoffer, Eric

A heresy can spring only from a system that is in full vigor. >>

We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on t >>

We never say so much as when we do not quite know what we want to say. >>

Quotations about Action

As our case is new, we must think and act anew. >>

Action makes more fortune than caution. >>

No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara >>

The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. De Tocqueville points out that it is at times when passions start to govern human affairs that ideas are most obviously translated into political action. The translation of ideas into action is usually in the hands of people least likely to follow rational motives. Hence, it is that action is often the nemesis of ideas, and sometimes of the men who formulate them. One of the marks of the truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action the ability to pass directly from thought to action.

Hoffer, Eric