Quote #157

Disraeli felt that 'nothing could compensate his obscure youth, not even a glorious old age.' Practically all writers and artists are aware of their destiny and see themselves as actors in a fateful drama. With me, nothing is momentous: obscure youth, glorious old age, fateful coincidences - nothing really matters. I have written a number of good sentences. I have kept free of delusions. I know I am going to die soon.

More from Eric Hoffer

  1. Some people have no original ideas because they do not think well enough of themselves to consider their ideas worth noticing and developin…
  2. I could never figure out - or probably did not take the trouble to figure out - what the great philosophical problems are about. The moment…
  3. As a full-time longshoreman I am necessarily more a scribbler than a writer. But I am also so by inclination. The writing I can enjoy is th…
  4. In all my life I never competed for fortune, for a woman, or for fame. I learned to write in total isolation. My first work was also my bes…
  5. A good sentence is a key. It unlocks the mind of the reader.
  6. A man by himself is in bad company.
  7. Originality is not something continuous but something intermittent - a flash of the briefest duration. One must have the time and be watchf…
  8. A war is not won if the defeated enemy has not been turned into a friend.

All Eric Hoffer quotes