Status Updates From The Passionate State of Min...

Paragraphs and quotations of penetrating observations about human nature. As usual, Hoffer singles out self-dissatisfaction and self-alienation as the driving forces of passion, radicalism, religious zeal or dishonesty with oneself (“we lie loudest when we lie to ourselves”). Four stars to account for the (deliberate) exaggeration.

Honestly the messages still hold and ring true, whether from my old mindset to the current one but sold on some of our passions stem from the things we cannot have but fervently want and hold dear whether we admit it to ourselves or the outside world. Sometimes it is best to be secretive about our passions until we gain the self control to persist try to attain it with compassion and vigor

It seems that we are most busy when we do not do the one thing we ought to do; most greedy when we cannot have the one thing we really want; most hurried when we can never arrive; most self-righteous when irrevocably in the wrong. There is apparently a link between excess and unattainability.

The nonconformist is a more stable type than the conforming individual. It is the average man of today who shows the most striking differences from people of other ages and other civilizations. The rebel of today is twin brother of rebels in all ages and climes.

Lack of sensitivity is perhaps basically an unawareness of ourselves.

The readiness to praise others indicates a desire for excellence and perhaps an ability to realize it.

When we are conscious of our worthlessness, we naturally expect others to be finer and better than we are. If then we discover any similarity between them and us, we see it as irrefutable evidence of their worthlessness and inferiority. It is this that with some people familiarity breeds contempt.

The only way to predict the future is to have the power to predict the future. This win possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make the their prophesies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to a person’s nature by discovering the reasons for his or her imperviousness to certain impressions.

Pride is a sense of worth derived from something that is not organically part of us, while self-esteem derived from the potentialities and achievements of the self. We are proud when we identify ourselves with an imaginary self, a leader, a holy cause, a collective body or possessions. There is fear and intolerance in pride; it is sensitive and uncompromising.