It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands new undertakings and new forms of expression.
~ Eric Hoffer
Faith is primarily a process of identification the process by which the individual ceases to be himself and becomes part of something eternal.
We are made kind by being kind.
The game of History is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.
It is always safe to assume that people are more subtle and less sensitive than they seem.
There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.
Fear is uncertainty.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.
Not actual suffering but the hope of better things incites people to revolt.
When people are free to do as they please they usually imitate each other.
Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem.
To believe that if only we had this or that we would be happy or to pursue any excessive desire diverts us from seeing that happiness depends on an adequate self.
Fair play with others is primarily not blaming them for anything that is wrong with us.
The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.
It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.
It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.
Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.
Children are the keys of paradise.
In times of change learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
The only way to predict the future is to have power to shape the future.
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.
It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
Many of the insights of the saint stem from their experience as sinners.
The fear of becoming a 'has-been' keeps some people from becoming anything.
We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.
Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.
Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.
Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.
