There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that intense passions can lead us to evade our true selves, resembling a fugitive escaping from reality.
Eric Hoffer's quote reflects on the nature of passion and how it can sometimes compel individuals to escape from their authentic selves. The passionate 'pursuer' is likened to a fugitive, indicating that when one becomes consumed by their desires or passions, they may lose sight of their true identity and values, ultimately leading to a conflict between their pursuits and their inner self.
In practice
This quote would be powerful in a speech about the dangers of losing oneself in obsessive pursuits.
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.
From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
On the road halfway between faith and criticism stands the inn of reason. Reason is faith in what can be understood without faith, but it's still a faith, since to understand presupposes that there's something understandable.
The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself, rather, you are penetrating deep layers and veils to return to the deepest truth of your own being.
If principles can become dated, they're not principles.
Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder; it is a howling reproach.
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