Craving, not having, is the mother of a reckless giving of oneself.
Interpretation
Desires and unfulfilled cravings can lead individuals to give themselves away without thought.
In this quote, Eric Hoffer suggests that the deep desire for something unattainable often drives people to engage in risky behavior, including self-sacrifice. When an individual yearns for an experience, love, or fulfillment that they do not possess, they may surrender parts of themselves recklessly in an attempt to find satisfaction or connection.
In practice
In a discussion about relationships, one might say, 'As Eric Hoffer said, craving is often a dangerous force that leads us to give too much of ourselves.'
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.
Man's objection to love is that it dies hard: women's, that when it is dead it stays dead.
I think a lot about our globalized world, our global interconnectedness, and it really saddens me when I see people 'othering,' when I see people who are willing to live narrowly.
Now we have black and white elected officials working together. Today, we have gone beyond just passing laws. Now we have to create a sense that we are one community, one family. Really, we are the American family.
The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!
I've changed my ways a little, I cannot now Run with you in the evenings along the shore, Except in a kind of dream, and you, if you dream a moment, You see me there.
Marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she's a householder.
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