Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
Interpretation
We tend to believe the things we know the least about more readily than those we understand well.
This quote by Eric Hoffer emphasizes the irony of human belief and credibility. It suggests that our susceptibility to accept ideas often correlates with our ignorance of them, revealing a tendency to trust what we do not fully comprehend while remaining skeptical of well-understood concepts. This highlights the importance of seeking knowledge and understanding to combat credulity and misinformation.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the importance of critical thinking in education.
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.
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.
It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.
The spirit of Lincoln still lives; that spirit born of the teachings of the Nazarene, who promised mercy to the merciful, who lifted the lowly, strengthened the weak, ate with publicans, and made the captives free. In the light of this divine example, the doctrines of demagogues shiver in their chaff.
I'm proud of what I am and who I am, and I'm just going to be myself.
Nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts.
Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity. The believing man is the original man; whatsoever he believes, he believes it for himself, not for another.
Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.
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