When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.
Interpretation
This quote highlights how cowardice can become normalized and accepted in society, attracting both the weak and those who appear strong.
Eric Hoffer's quote suggests that when society condones or glamorizes cowardice, it loses its stigma, leading many individuals, regardless of their inherent strength or weakness, to adopt such behavior. This normalization can create an environment where bravery is undervalued, and the fear of taking risks or standing up for one's beliefs becomes commonplace.
In practice
In a discussion about societal values, one might quote Hoffer to illustrate how cultural trends can influence behavior.
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.
Something must be left to chance; nothing is certain in a sea fight
I learned to deal with the police... to be tough... to survive.
There is one good thing about reaching the bottom. When you get there, there's nothing left to do but fight your way back up or die.
U.S. journalists I don't think are very courageous. They tend to go along with the government's policy domestically and internationally. To question is seen as being unpatriotic, or potentially subversive.
But come here, Fear. / I am alive! / And you are so afraid / of dying.
Smears are not only to be expected but fought. Honor is to be earned, not bought.
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