Inspiration


Eric HofferEn dosis sund fornuft fra Eric Hoffer, amerikansk havnearbejder og selvlært filosof. Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) er nok mest kendt for bogen “The True Believer - On The Nature of Mass Movements”, hvori han dissekerer psykologien bag massebevægelser.

  • “Spiritual stagnation ensues when man’s environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.”
  • “We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.”
  • “Whoever originated the cliche that money is the root of all evil knew hardly anything about the nature of evil and very little about human beings.”
  • “The monstrous evils of the twentieth century have shown us that the greediest money grubbers are gentle doves compared with money-hating wolves like Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, who in less than three decades killed or maimed nearly a hundred million men, women, and children and brought untold suffering to a large portion of mankind.”
  • “Every era has a currency that buys souls. In some the currency is pride, in others it is hope, in still others it is a holy cause. There are of course times when hard cash will buy souls, and the remarkable thing is that such times are marked by civility, tolerance, and the smooth working of everyday life.”
  • “We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to attain excellence. To discover what a man truly craves but knows he cannot have we must find the field in which he advocates absolute equality. By this test Communists are frustrated Capitalists.”

Flere inspirerende citater:John Adams, 2. President of the US of A

  • Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
  • Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion… in private self-defense.
  • Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.
  • In politics the middle way is none at all. - John Adams
  • KierkegaardVor Tid erindrer meget om den græske Stats Opløsning, Alt bestaaer, og dog er der Ingen, der troer derpaa. Det usynlige aandelige Baand, der giver det Gyldighed, er forsvundet, og saaledes er hele Tiden paa eengang comisk og tragisk; tragisk fordi den gaaer under, comisk fordi den bestaaer.
  • Det hendte paa et Theater, at der gik Ild i Coulisserne. Bajads kom for at underrette Publicum derom. Man troede, det var en Vittighed og applauderede; han gjentog det; man jublede endnu mere. Saaledes tænker jeg, at Verden vil gaae til Grunde under almindelig Jubel af vittige Hoveder, der troer, at det er en Witz.
  • Jeg taler helst med Børn; thi om dem tør man dog haabe, at de kan blive Fornuft-Væsener; men de, der er blevne det! Herre Jemini!
  • Hvad jeg vil? Ganske simpelt: jeg vil Redelighed.
  • Ak, medens den speculerende velbaarne Hr. Professor forklarer hele Tilværelsen, har han i Distraction glemt, hvad han selv hedder: at han er et Menneske, et slet og ret Menneske, ikke en phantastisk 3/8 af en §.
  • Min hele Betragtning af Danmark gjør mit Liv uhyggeligt her; der er noget Uhyggeligt i, at vide og være forvisset om et Lands Undergang, medens Alle juble ved Tanken om en mageløs Fremtid. - Søren Kierkegaard
  • All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.t-jefferson2-icon.jpg
  • A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
  • A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
  • The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but the newspapers.
  • Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
  • Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
  • Information is the currency of democracy. - Thomas Jefferson
  • portrait_de_dante.jpgThe darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
  • He listens well who takes notes.
  • There is no greater sorrow
    Than to be mindful of the happy time
    In misery.
  • If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought. - Dante Alighieri
  • churchill_poster.jpgA fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
  • An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
  • One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.
  • Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
  • I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
  • Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
  • It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. :-D - Sir Winston S. Churchill
    • An army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of bullshit.
    • The Carthaginians defending the city were attacked by three Roman legions. The Carthaginians were proud and brave but they couldn’t hold. They were massacred. Arab women stripped them of their tunics and their swords and lances. The soldiers lay naked in the sun. Two thousand years ago. I was here.
    • Men, all this stuff you’ve heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, big league ball players, the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost, and will never lose a war… because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.
    • For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph - a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.
    • Galileos are still being interrogated in the disastrous courts of ignorance
      Young Galileos are crying
      Oh You! Darkness lovers:
      We will not be frightened of burns and fires
      We are the everlasting flames of history - Sirus Tabristani, an Iranian Poet