Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.
Interpretation
Hatred can be a strong motivator for belief, revealing flaws in faith when removed.
In this quote, Eric Hoffer suggests that hatred can sometimes underpin people's beliefs and identities. When hatred is stripped away, what remains might expose a lack of genuine faith or conviction, implying that some individuals might hold on to beliefs as a reaction against others rather than from true conviction or understanding.
In practice
In a debate about the role of emotions in belief systems, this quote can illustrate how negative feelings shape faith.
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.
Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
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.
β''Just think, never to be glad or disappointed. Never to like anyone and get cross at him and forgive him. Never to sleep or feel cold, never to make a mistake and have a stomach-ache and be cured from it, never to have a birthday party, drink beer, and have a bad conscience... How terrible.
Consciousness does not just passively reflect the objective material world; it plays an active role in creating reality itself.
By whomsoever no evil is done in deed, or word, or thought, him I call a Brahmin (holy man) who is guarded in these three.
Men, however distinguished by external accidents or intrinsick qualities, have all the same wants, the same pains, and, as far as the senses are consulted, the same pleasures.
Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.
April 27. Incapable of living with people, of speaking. Complete immersion in myself, thinking of myself. Apathetic, witless, fearful. I have nothing to say to anyone - never.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.