Eric Hoffer Quotes
Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden. Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual? We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "to be free from freedom."
Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. Harper & Brothers, 1951, p. 30.
If a person cannot read, he gets no benefit from freedom of the press. If he has no occupational skills, the freedom to negotiate his own working conditions is meaningless.
Eric Hoffer was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. His first book, The True Believer (1951), was widely recognized as a classic, receiving critical acclaim from both scholars and laymen, although Hoffer believed that The Ordeal of Change was his finest work.
