A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness.
Interpretation
People who are unwilling to share often lack their own resources or richness in life. Being miserly reflects deeper personal emptiness.
This quote by Eric Hoffer suggests that those who hesitate or refuse to share their resources or experiences with others tend to possess little themselves. It implies that a reluctance to give may stem from an impoverished inner life, where miserly behavior serves as an outward indication of emotional or spiritual scarcity.
In practice
During a seminar on personal growth, this quote could be used to emphasize the importance of generosity in achieving fulfillment.
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.
Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?
Every rose that is sweet-scented within, That rose is telling of the secrets of the Universal.
The gospel has done its work in us when we crave God more than we crave everything else in life - more than money, romance, family, health, fame - and when seeing His kingdom advance in the lives of others gives us more joy than anything we could own. When we see Jesus as greater than anything the world can offer, we'll gladly let everything else go to possess Him.
When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts ... Who knows what use they’ll make of you? Maybe you’ll help them to persuade people to buy things they don’t need, or hate things they know nothing about, or hold beliefs that make them easy to handle, or doubt the truths that might save them.
Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go.
Once upon a time men were possessed by devils. Now they are not less obsessed by ideas
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